Manzanar: The Wartime Photographs of Ansel Adams

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Ansel Adams Photo

Entrance to Manzanar Relocation Center, a Japanese-American internment camp built in World War II northeast of Los Angeles.

“Manzanar: The Wartime Photographs of Ansel Adams” features 50 images taken by Adams within a year of the creation of relocation camps built to detain all Americans of Japanese ancestry following the attack on Pearl Harbor. These authentic black and white photographs, organized by the Reading Public Museum, present an intimate look at daily conditions of life during internment for more than 11,000 Japanese Americans at Manzanar Relocation Center, located northeast of Los Angeles. Adams considered these photographs “from a social point of view, the most important thing I’ve done or can do.”

In addition to Adams' work, the exhibition features photographs by Dorothea Lange and Toyo Miyatake. Miyatake was a Los Angeles portrait photographer and Manzanar internee. Both Adams's and Miyatake's photographs present a more positive view of those interned at Manzanar, while Lange's photographs reflect the upheaval of evacuation and the bleak conditions of the camp for those forced to live there.