One of the projects that I have been working on for over 40 years has been the documenting of the remains of the Manzanar War Relocation Center, located in the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, approximately 240 miles north of Los Angeles off of Highway 395.
Manzanar: Their Footsteps Remain - 40 Years of Photography is now available as a 194-page fine art coffee table book and traveling exhibition. The images in the Manzanar: Their Footsteps Remain collection are stark, desolate, haunting, and poignant. Like pottery shards discovered in an archeological dig, they give us clues to the story of a people who experienced intolerable indignities, fear and racism while struggling for survival. The photographs recall the U.S. government's actions against Japanese-American citizens and immigrants during World War II – foreshadowing the immigrant injustices and racial inequity being protested all across United States today.
To honor those who lost everything and were forced to live behind barbed wire under the watchful eyes of armed military police, I wanted to create a piece in the Solace of Space realm using an image from the Manzanar: Their Footsteps Remain collection. The fruits of my efforts are below. For more information about Manzanar: Their Footsteps Remain visit www.manzanarfootsteps.com.
From the Darkness Comes Light © 2018 - Manzanar National Historic Site, California
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