Manzanar, Owens Valley, California, April, 1998.

It was only after I visited here that I learned that one of my photographic idols, Ansel Adams, had photographed the place, publishing a book of photos and commentary brilliantly entitled Born Free and Equal (a book that I found is weirdly difficult to obtain, especially given Adams’ standing as a photographer and advocate for causes he cared about). Interestingly, he just photographed what he saw and consequently took flak from both the left and the right for this: from the right for failing to portray the inmates as the defeated enemy and from the left for failing to portray them as helpless victims. Another couple of bumps up on the integrity meter for him in my eyes.

Taken with a Minolta XG-M and the 50mm f1.7 lens on Ektachrome 100, scanned on a Polaroid SprintScan 35+, with severe exposure correction in the Polaroid scanning software, then cleanup, further exposure corrections, cropping, and duo-tone adjustment in Photoshop 7.