Landscape of Place and Memory: American Concentration Camps

These photographs are about beauty and irony, history and memory. The panoramic photo collages are a reconstruction of space, a remapping of space. These are landscapes of place representing the memory of that land and that place. As a Japanese American sansei who was born in these camps, I feel that this body of work goes beyond these conceptual aspects.

The photo collages in this group exhibit symbolize a darker past in the American landscape. These are the remains of four of the ten concentration camps that interned 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. This is the collective memory of these American citizens who found themselves in their own homeland, suddenly without a country to call their own, called "enemy aliens" and prisoners in their own hometown.

My panoramic photo collages are created from multiple exposures, shot from a single point perspective, and rotated 360 degrees. Multiple images are then taped together to create a surrounding panoramic space. The collaged photographs create a visual tension between the physical beauty of these landscapes and their historical darkness.

Through these images, I seek to preserve not just the physical remains of these sites, but also the emotional and historical weight they carry. Each photograph is a meditation on memory, justice, and the enduring human spirit in the face of adversity.