Authors: Mary Street Alinder
47
Armor and Wright,
Manzanar
, xx.
48
A. Adams,
Born Free and Equal
, 110. On the title page, Ansel acknowledged, “Dedicated with Admiration and Respect to Ralph Palmer Merritt Who Has Given Thousands of our Fellow-Citizens A Renewed Faith and Confidence in Democracy.” For more on Dillon S. Myer see Richard Drinnon,
Keeper of Concentration Camps, Dillon S. Myer and American Racism
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).
49
Nancy Newhall, “Ansel Adams,
Born Free and Equal
,”
photo notes
, June 1946 (New York: The Photo League), 3–5.
50
Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” United Feature Syndicate, 1945.
51
Ansel Adams to Nancy Newhall, December 24, 1944, CCP.
52
Armor and Wright,
Manzanar
, xviii.
53
Pete Merritt remembers that one incensed citizen bought as many copies of
Born Free and Equal
as he could find and then burned them in his garage. Pete Merritt interview.
54
Karin Becker Ohrn, in her book
Dorothea Lange and the Documentary Tradition
, relates that in a letter Ansel wrote her on April 2, 1975, he stated that
U.S. Camera
had intentionally destroyed copies of
Born Free and Equal.
55
Adams to Merritt, December 22, 1944. Ansel sent Merritt his personally inscribed copy of the book accompanied by this letter. Surely Ansel would make certain that Merritt received it at the earliest available time. In this letter, Ansel also complained about the many problems the book faced without detailing what those were except for the lack of publicity.
56
A. Adams, “Conversations,” 415–416.
57
Sue Kunitomi Embrey, “Born Free and Equal,” Binti, ed.,
Born Free and Equal
, 26.
58
Ansel Adams to Dorothea Lange, May 15, 1962, in M. Alinder and Stillman,
Letters and Images
, 281–282.
59
Dorothea Lange, “The Making of a Documentary Photographer,” an oral history conducted 1960–1961 by Suzanne B. Riess, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1968, 200–201.
60
Karin Becker Ohrn, “What You See Is What You Get: Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams at Manzanar,”
Journalism History
4, no. 1 (spring 1977): 22.
61
N. Newhall, “Ansel Adams,
Born Free and Equal
,” 4.
62
Valediction 1945
, published by the Associated Student Body of Manzanar High School.
63
Nishiura Weglyn,
Years of Infamy,
93–102; and
Hayashi
, “American Concentration Camps,” 32–43.
64
A. Adams, “Conversations,” 26.
65
N. Newhall, “Ansel Adams,
Born Free and Equal
,” 5.
66
Senator Alan Cranston, “S.621 The Manzanar National Historic Site Act,” Senator Alan Cranston Reports to California, spring 1991.
67
At Manzanar there is a 3.2-mile self-guided auto tour, free park ranger programs, and an interpretative center with exhibits and a variety of programs, including films. In May 2006, our daughter Jasmine and I presented “An Evening with Ansel Adams” at the interpretative center (the former high school). Jasmine holds a Ph.D. in art history, specializing in the history of photography. She is the author of
Moving Images, Photography and the Japanese American Incarceration
, and she is a very knowledgeable speaker on these events.
As we drove to Manzanar from our motel, a full moon rose over the Owens Valley and the Sierra Nevada loomed, theatrically half-obscured by a dramatic fog. We knew the night would be magical. Manzanar is close to the middle of nowhere with a low population density. Jasmine said, “Mom, what if no one comes?” My reply was that it didn’t matter. Just being in what I consider to be a sacred place and to be able to present a portion of its history would be deeply fulfilling for both of us. It turned out that the hall was packed with people. It was an enormous honor for both of us to experience this, and together.
68
Ansel Adams,
Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs
(Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1983), 162–167.
69
An example,
Mount LeConte and Lone Pine Peak, from the Owens Valley, California
(ca. 1940), is reproduced in Ansel Adams with Mary Street Alinder,
Ansel Adams: An Autobiography
(Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1985), 263.
70
A. Adams,
Examples
, 164.
71
Ibid., 162–165; A. Adams with M. Alinder,
Autobiography
, 262–263.
72
This interpretation is the idea of Tim Hill, former editor in chief of the New York Graphic Society, Ansel’s publisher from 1974 to 1979. Tim Hill to Mary Alinder, April 10, 1995.
73
A. Adams,
Examples
, 164–165.
74
Ibid., 66–69; Ansel Adams with Robert Baker,
The Camera
(Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1980), fig. 1-1.
75
Photographs by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams for “The Golden West,” “The Grandeur That Was Home,” “After the Battle,” “Detour through Purgatory,” and “Richmond Took a Beating”; photographs by Ansel Adams for “The El Solyo Deal.” All six articles in
Fortune
32, no. 2 (February 1945).
76
A. Adams with M. Alinder,
Autobiography
, 170.
77
Elizabeth Partridge,
Dorothea Lange, Grab a Hunk of Lightning
(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2013), 28.
78
Meltzer,
Dorothea Lange: A Photographer’s Life
, 247–249.
79
Ibid.; Gordon,
Dorothea Lange
, 331–339.
80
Ansel Adams,
Trailer Camp Children, Richmond, California
, reproduced in Ansel Adams with Robert Baker,
The Print
(Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1983), fig. 8–9, 184–185.
81
Ibid.
82
Anne W. Tucker, “The Photo League,” in
The Photo League 1936–1951
(New York: The College Art Gallery, The College at New Paltz State University of New York, and Photofind Gallery, n.d.), 2–4.
83
Lester Taikington, “Ansel Adams at the Photo League,”
photo notes
, March 1944 (New York: The Photo League): 4–6.
84
Philippe Halsman to Ansel Adams, December 1, 1947, in M. Alinder and Stillman,
Letters and Images
, 185.
85
Ansel Adams to Philippe Halsman, December 8, 1947, ibid., 186–187.
86
Photo notes
, January 1948 (New York: The Photo League): 1.
87
Ansel Adams to the Photo League,
photo notes
, January 1948, 5.
88
Ibid.
89
A. Adams, “Conversations,” 155.
90
N. Newhall, “The Enduring Moment,” 627.
91
Ansel Adams to Walter Rosenblum, May 23, 1949, quoted in N. Newhall, “The Enduring Moment,” 632–636.
92
A. Adams, “Conversations,” 49.
93
Partridge,
Dorothea Lange
, 27–29.
94
David L. Jacobs, “Three Mormon Towns,”
Exposure
25, no. 2 (summer 1987): 5.
95
Maitland Edey, “Three Mormon Towns,” in Maitland Edey and Constance Sullivan,
Great Photographic Essays from LIFE
(Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1978), 154.
96
Jacobs, “Three Mormon Towns,” 7.
97
Ibid., 16.
98
Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams, “Three Mormon Towns,”
Life
, September 6, 1954, 91–100; David Jacobs, “History of Three Mormon Towns,”
Ansel Adams & Dorothea Lange’s Three Mormon Towns
, ed. Mark Hedengren (Oakland: Oakland Museum of California, 2012), 98–99.
99
Jacobs, “Three Mormon Towns,” 7.
100
Meltzer,
Dorothea Lange: A Photographer’s Life
, 246.
101
Paul S. Taylor,
Paul Schuster Taylor: California Social Scientist
, vol. 1 (Berkeley: University of California, 1973), 242–244.
102
Jacobs, “Three Mormon Towns,” 21–22.
103
A. Adams with M. Alinder,
Autobiography
, 268.
104
Ansel Adams to Dorothea Lange, October 25, 1954, CCP.
105
Edey, “Three Mormon Towns,” 154.
106
Gordon,
Dorothea Lange
, 366–370.
107
Completed under the title “Death of a Valley,” the story was published by
Aperture
in 1959 and exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art that same year. Ibid., 301–303.
108
Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California.
109
Partridge,
Dorothea Lange,
38.
110
Therese Thau Heyman, “Ansel Adams Remembers Dorothea Lange,” in Partridge,
Dorothea Lange: A Visual Life
, 159. With permission of Therese Thau Heyman, The Oakland Museum of California.
16. CONCLUSIONS
1
Ansel Adams to Beaumont Newhall, March 23, 1950, CCP.
2
Ansel Adams with Mary Street Alinder,
Ansel Adams: An Autobiography
(Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1985), 44–45.
3
Ibid., 47.
4
Stewart McBride, “Ansel,”
American Photographer
4, no. 6 (December 1980): 59.
5
Beaumont Newhall to Ansel Adams, August 4, 1951, in Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray Stillman, eds.,
Ansel Adams: Letters and Images, 1916–1984
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 220–221. Copyright Beaumont Newhall, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Estate, courtesy of Scheinbaum & Russek Ltd., Santa Fe, New Mexico.
6
A. Adams with M. Alinder,
Autobiography
, 381–385.
7
Nancy Newhall, “The Enduring Moment” [unpublished manuscript], 753–754.
8
Ansel Adams to Nancy Newhall, December 14, 1952, CCP.
9
A. Adams with M. Alinder,
Autobiography
, 383.
10
Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall, “Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona,”
Arizona Highways
, June 1952, 18–27; “Sunset Crater,”
Arizona Highways
, July 1952; “The Shell of Tumacacori,”
Arizona Highways
, November 1952, 4–13; “Death Valley,”
Arizona Highways
, October 1953, 16–35; “Organ Pipe,”
Arizona Highways
, January 1954; “Mission San Xavier del Bac,”
Arizona Highways
, April 1954, 12–35.