JERRY TAKIGAWA

Balancing Cultures

After my mother passed away, my brother and I were left with boxes of old photographs. Among them were images of family members taken in camp. In my family, when anyone spoke of “camp,” they weren’t referring to an idyllic pine-scented summer retreat; they were referring to the WWII American concentration camps sanctioned by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. My Monterey-born parents were incarcerated at the Jerome, Arkansas camp. While this project gives voice to my family’s story, the process of researching and making these images has greatly informed the roots of my ideology.