Popular Post Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Popular Post Share #1 Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) Advertisement (gone after registration) Like everyone here, I've been enjoying my M10 Monochrom for the past several months. I found it the perfect tool for a photo essay I've been working on. Idaho is one of the places where the US government built concentration camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. 120,000 American citizens were rounded up over a 2-week period in 1942. They had to leave everything behind except what they could carry. Many lost their homes, farms and businesses. They were shipped to Assembly Centers, which usually were racetracks or fairgrounds, where they were put in horse stalls for a few months while they government built the camps in uninhabited, desolate, remote, harsh regions of the country. They spent 3 years in these camps, and the remnants of one of them is in Idaho, located in a broad high mountain desert the Shoshone Indians called "Minidoka." What struck me most about Minidoka was not the few remaining buildings in fairly good shape at the site, which now is a National Historic Site. But rather, the remnants of these buildings scattered throughout the farms and towns in the area. You don't notice them at first because they have blended into the fabric of the land, but if you keep a keen eye as you're driving down a country road, you will see the unmistakable shape of the barracks in a barn or a shed or a house. The M10 was perfect for this because its high ISO capability allowed me to hand hold the camera with a pinhole, which allowed the metaphors of this project to be expressed. To me, the pinhole rendered images that were appropriate to the project for two reasons. This happened 78 years ago, and the survivors of the camps have an indistinct memory of those times. I felt that the indistinct images rendered by the pinhole are a metaphor for their memory. The indistinct images also represent the country's indistinct memory of this past sin, one which it probably would just as soon forget. The pinhole also created interesting optical patterns on the sensor from sun flare. And the decaying buildings, many of them propped up by boards that look like canes, are a metaphor for the aging occupants of these buildings so long ago. The first image is a barracks that housed 6 families. Each family, including grandparents (Issei), parents (Nissei) and grandchildren (Sansei) were placed in a single 20x20 foot room with army cots. No other furniture. They had to build chairs and tables from scrap wood in the camp. The buildings were made of green wood and clad with tar paper, no insulation. The desert gets down to -30 Fahrenheit in the winter and above 100 in the summer. Wind howled through the buildings. This building at the Historic Site has had more siding added to it after the tar paper rotted off, but it is not an accurate representation of how they lived. This group of visitors appeared like an apparition of those souls who had lived here 8 decades earlier. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Edited June 11, 2020 by Likaleica 25 4 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991527'>More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 11, 2020 Posted June 11, 2020 Hi Likaleica, Take a look here Minidoka: Fabric of the Land . I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #2 Posted June 11, 2020 Here you see the tar paper siding. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! 10 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991529'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #3 Posted June 11, 2020 A caucasian man and his Japanese American wife watch a documentary in the visitors center. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! 10 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991530'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #4 Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Edited June 11, 2020 by Likaleica 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991531'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #5 Posted June 11, 2020 Josh and his wife Angel, neither of whom had any connection to the camp, visit the site several times a year. They brought their children to teach them about the true meaning of liberty, and what can go wrong in a society dedicated to that liberty when fear and hatred take over. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! 13 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991532'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #6 Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) The camps were surrounded by barbed wire and had guard towers with armed soldiers whose weapons pointed into the camps, not outward to protect them as we were told. The Japanese ethic of Gaman - enduring extreme adversity with grace and resolve - got them through. So did small acts of defiance against their captors. At Minidoka they created Zen rock gardens from the volcanic boulders found in the area. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Edited June 11, 2020 by Likaleica 13 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991534'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #7 Posted June 11, 2020 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hunt Road, which was and remains the only approach to the camp. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! 11 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991535'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #8 Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) After the war the people were released, but many had nowhere to go. The government auctioned the surrounding land that the incarcerated had cultivated to war veterans, but not to the people who had lived there. Del Romer's father homesteaded the area and Del still lives on that property. He keeps about 50 dogs for hunting. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Edited June 11, 2020 by Likaleica 14 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991539'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #9 Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) A shed from a converted barracks that has been clad with corrugated steel. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Edited June 11, 2020 by Likaleica 11 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991540'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #10 Posted June 11, 2020 Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! 7 1 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991543'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #11 Posted June 11, 2020 Freedom. So easy for the birds to fly away. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! 12 4 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991545'>More sharing options...
Herr Barnack Posted June 11, 2020 Share #12 Posted June 11, 2020 @Tim, This is a haunting and beautiful series of photographs and a significant body of work. It brings to mind faded memories of a dark chapter in our nation's history. Your use of a pinhole lens was spot on - this was an excellent choice. Thank you for sharing these images with us. I hope you will publish them in book form sometime soon. H/B 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted June 11, 2020 Share #13 Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) Very, very, very well-done, Tim! An evocative handling of a disturbing chapter in our history. Should be published - but from your background I'd guess that 1) you already know that and 2) know how to get it done. Eight years ago, after the newspaper folded and I was working at a suburban Denver camera store, one of the customers was a Japanese-American woman in her late 70s. She had brought in some family snapshots from the 1940s for restoration. They showed her as a child, and her family, and I realized from the background buildings that she had been in such a camp. I asked her if it was Manzanar (the most famous camp, thanks to Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange), and she told me, No, that it was right here in Colorado. The Granada Relocation Center (a.k.a Camp Amache) on the Great Plains. Since 2012 was the 70th anniversary of the creation of these concentration camps, I immediately tracked it down for an essay in ColoradoSeen. It proved to be a different challenge that required a slightly different "symbolic" approach, since there were virtually no remaining buildings, and I never saw any other visitors - it is very remote. It is the closing story (pp. 36-53) of this 2012 issue. Just an additional take on this too-often-forgotten story. M9 B&W conversions, 75 Summilux and 21 Elmarit. https://issuu.com/coloradoseen/docs/cs_02_2012 Edited June 11, 2020 by adan 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkmoore Posted June 11, 2020 Share #14 Posted June 11, 2020 I really enjoyed this series as well as the associated stories. Excellent work and thanks for sharing. Love the look to the images as well, not just the editing but the other techniques employed. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 11, 2020 Share #15 Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) Inspired by Tim's amazing images and having seen the rest of them that will make up his book I decided to try out a pinhole on my M10-M this morning, simply taping a 4x5 lens board with a pinhole to the M...........Thanks Tim! Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Edited June 11, 2020 by petermullett Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/310487-minidoka-fabric-of-the-land/?do=findComment&comment=3991731'>More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #16 Posted June 11, 2020 39 minutes ago, petermullett said: Inspired by Tim's amazing images and having seen the rest of them that will make up his book I decided to try out a pinhole on my M10-M this morning, simply taping a 4x5 lens board with a pinhole to the M...........Thanks Tim! Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Cheers, Peter. Looks like 1920, not 2020. Very cool. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share #17 Posted June 11, 2020 Administrators: I just realized that maybe I should have posted this topic in the Photo Forum, rather than here. Please feel free to move it if you agree. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted June 13, 2020 Share #18 Posted June 13, 2020 (edited) On 6/11/2020 at 9:52 PM, Likaleica said: Administrators: I just realized that maybe I should have posted this topic in the Photo Forum, rather than here. Please feel free to move it if you agree. I'll ask a technical question then so you won't get your wrist slapped. What pinhole are you using, home made or something like a Skink? I've got a Skink adapter with various aperture pinholes to use with 35mm or large format and I don't really like the effect as much as a home made pinhole, perhaps because being laser cut they are too perfect. You've got some beautiful flare and glow so I just wondered? Edited June 13, 2020 by 250swb Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted June 13, 2020 Author Share #19 Posted June 13, 2020 7 hours ago, 250swb said: I'll ask a technical question then so you won't get your wrist slapped. What pinhole are you using, home made or something like a Skink? I've got a Skink adapter with various aperture pinholes to use with 35mm or large format and I don't really like the effect as much as a home made pinhole, perhaps because being laser cut they are too perfect. You've got some beautiful flare and glow so I just wondered? Thanks for saving my bacon! I got a Rising pinhole for the R (they make one for the M) and put it on the R-M adapter to make the field of view less narrow. The photo of the man with the halo was a surprise. I don't chimp much and when I looked at it later I was amazed at the effect. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted June 13, 2020 Share #20 Posted June 13, 2020 Thanks, the Rising R adapter got me thinking about something I'd never questioned, the pinhole on the Rising M pinhole is set very much recessed compared with the R version, and you use the R version with the R-M adapter to further increase the distance to the sensor. As my Skink pinhole can be adjusted closer or further away from the sensor maybe that's what I should be experimenting with to increase the accidental effects? I'll experiment. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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