Heart Mountain, Japanese-American Concentration Camp, Wyoming, June 3, 1995 / HM-11-16-39 (from the series Japanese American Concentration Camps)
Artist
Patrick Nagatani
(American, 1945 - 2017)
DateJune 4, 1995
Mediumchromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 10 1/4 × 12 3/4 in. (26 × 32.4 cm)
Support: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
Support: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Patrick Nagatani, 2017
Object number2017.12.71
DescriptionLandscape with foreground covered in clumped grasses with visible seed heads. At right and curving around middle ground to left is a wire fence with wooden fence posts. Center middle ground is dominated by the remnants of a wooden platform with about five steps at left. Behind it is a tall wooden pole with a small flat platform on top and a wire or cable extending toward the ground at left. Mountain range crosses entire composition at horizon. Cloud-filled sky above mountains with dark cloud visible at top left of page.eMuseum Notes
Typically known for his photographic narratives and colorful
constructed imagery, Patrick Nagatani shifts to a more documentary style in his
series “Japanese-American Concentration Camps.” In the early 1990s, the artist
traveled to and photographed the sites of ten inland camps created by the U.S.
government during World War II to forcibly detain citizens of Japanese descent.
Families across the nation were required to leave their homes, Businesses,
land, and property to live in these isolated camps under challenging
conditions. Among them were Nagatani’s parents, who were both incarcerated as
young adults, his mother at Manzanar and his father at Jerome; his maternal
grandfather was separated from his family and held at the Justice Department
Internment Camp in Santa Fe. Nagatani’s parents later met married in Chicago
and, like many prisoners of war, did not discuss their incarceration with their
children. The artist and his siblings grew into adulthood knowing very little
of their parents’ experiences. This photographic series was his way to explore
and claim that family history.
On View
Not on view
