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Heart Mountain, Japanese-American Concentration Camp, Wyoming, June 3, 1995 / HM-14-16-42 (from the series Japanese American Concentration Camps)
Heart Mountain, Japanese-American Concentration Camp, Wyoming, June 3, 1995 / HM-14-16-42 (from the series Japanese American Concentration Camps)
Heart Mountain, Japanese-American Concentration Camp, Wyoming, June 3, 1995 / HM-14-16-42 (from the series Japanese American Concentration Camps)

Heart Mountain, Japanese-American Concentration Camp, Wyoming, June 3, 1995 / HM-14-16-42 (from the series Japanese American Concentration Camps)

Artist (American, 1945 - 2017)
DateJune 3, 1995
Mediumchromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 10 1/4 × 12 3/4 in. (26 × 32.4 cm)
Support: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Patrick Nagatani, 2017
Object number2017.12.73
DescriptionForeground of disturbed soil with rocks that has been overgrown with vegetation. Middle ground covered with low vegetation and a tree at far left and far right. A little further back at center of composition is an arrangement of boulders that is part of a monument surrounded by an area of bare earth. Dominating the composition is the distinctive shape of Heart Mountain. Above it is a low-hanging blanket of clouds with dark clouds in the foreground at right.
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.

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