Art by my sister!

I found out about this old Dr. Suess cartoon from World War II while reading a book about photographer Dorothea Lange and her work during the internment of Japanese Americans. I have always been fascinated by that part of American history being an Asian American of partial Japanese heritage. I was surprised though that even Dr. Suess was on the bandwagon of paranoia about the Japanese during that time. Ansel Adams and Lange also were at odds with Lange being one of the few on the side of the Japanese Americans and seeing the civil liberties of Americans being taken away. The book is called Impounded.

I listened to Henry Wessel speak about photography and composition. It was fascinating since it reaffirmed something that I’ve noticed on my own. One of his statements was: “Once you recognize something, you are less aware.”

He gave an example of how once you know that a telephone pole exisits, you don’t really see it in regular life. Most of us walk by telephone poles all the time, and don’t notice them at all. It also has something to do with the pure mind and what it perceives and that’s often evident in shots where I end up loving my first shot more than the subsequent ‘more composed’ images. It also reminds me of how babies have that certain look in their eyes when they look around.

Check out the full podcast here on the SFMOMA website or grab it here.

Here’s a pic from a Japanese artist that I like – Naoshi:

more here!