Born Free and Equal

Rating:
Summary: Adams's photos are also in "Manzanar" (Adams, Hersey, et al)
Review: If you want to see Adams's photos, many of them are in a terrific book, "Manzanar," by John Armor and Peter Wright. About half the text is an essay by John Hersey on how Manzanar and the other US concentration camps came to be and how they were closed; the text by Armor and Wright is about life in Manzanar while it was active. Unfortunately, this book, published in 1988, is now out of print. (Please ignore my rating of 5 stars, as I didn't read the Adams book.)

Rating:
Summary: Not just another Adams coffeetable book
Review: If you're looking to add to your Adams collection of beautiful landscapes, skip this book; there are only a dozen or two photos, and they are small. If you are looking for a powerful statement about Adams' character and beliefs, this is a must! I admired Adams' technical expertise for many years, collecting all his photo series and trying my hand at Zone method plates, view camera and all. I felt his photos were pretty but soulless, and consisted mostly of landscapes with very few people pictures (the famous Georgia O'Keefe portrait and few others.) Then in 1986 I had a few hours to kill in Kansas City and saw 50 of the photos at the Nelson. This exhibit, a reproduction of Adams' planned wartime show, is the only photographic show that has ever reduced me to tears. Powerful, relentless, truthful. I staggered out of the exhibit unable to drive for a while, and searched for the book. The book is flawed by inconsistent editing and deserves a new folio edition complete with page-sized prints. The omission of so many photos is why I do not give it 5 stars. Nevertheless, I deem it the last Adams book in my collection I would leave behind. It changed my view of Adams the man entirely. I consider it essential for knowledge of one of America's least shining hours. Were I a history or government teacher, I would build a unit around this book!

Rating:
Summary: An interesting book, but too expensive for what it is.
Review: This is the original limited edition (3000 copies printed) catalogue of the short-lived 1980s re-exhibition of Ansel Adams photographs from Manzanar relocation camp. As a book, it doesn't add up to much. It is only 44 pages long, and contains 19 thumbnail size reproductions of Ansel Adams' original photographs and a very abridged version of Ansel Adams' original text for his repressed book "Born Free and Equal" along with an introductory essay by Emily Medvec, curator of the exhibit. I would recommend this only for collectors of books about the WWII internment of Japanese Americans who must have everything ever published about it. For those interested in learning more about the Japanese American internment two much better books would be "Beyond Words : Images from America's Concentration Camps" by Deborah Gesensway and Mindy Roseman, or "Manzanar" by John Armour and Peter Wright. The latter book contains a very good selection of Ansel Adams' Manzanar photos and commentary by John Hersey.