Some of the most progressive art photographs made in America were created during the 1920s and 1930s by Japanese immigrants in the Little Tokyo District of Los Angeles. Their photographs, along with prints by other Japanese Americans working along the Pacific Coast of the United States, were published and exhibited internationally to considerable acclaim before, tragically, most of their photographs were lost or destroyed during the shameful relocation of Japanese Americans at the outset of World War II.
Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920–1940 takes an in-depth look at this lost legacy, presenting 103 surviving works from that period alongside artifacts and ephemera that help bring the era to life. The exhibition examines issues of artistic and personal freedom as well as Japanese American contributions to modern art. Thirty-nine of these photographers are represented in this catalog, along with a biography of each photographer, an extensive essay by the exhibition’s curator, Dennis Reed and an introduction by the museum’s president & CEO, Greg Kimura.
Paper: 154 pp.
Also available;
Behind Barbed Wire—Searching for Japanese Americans Incarcerated During World War II
Colors of Confinement/Paper
