Biography

Although one might be tempted to envision photography as a means of conveying reality, in truth all photographs are to some extent specious. Rather than presenting the world as we experience it, photographers present subjective visions, constructing images through a combination of point of view, depth of field, equipment and lenses, and lighting and darkroom effects. Patrick Nagatani’s work embraces this artificiality and augments it with further manipulation—theatrical backgrounds, collaging, and hand-coloring. Paradoxically, as an artist he is preoccupied with telling the truth. The ultimate goal of Nagatani’s work is to educate as he entertains, creating thoughtful meditations on the risks associated with nuclear power at the same time that he endeavors to capture the viewer’s attention through his intriguing photographic maneuvers.

Nagatani’s parents, John Nagatani and Diane (Yoshimura) Nagatani, were first-generation Japanese Americans and were forced to live in the Jerome and Manzanar internment camps during World War II. When given their freedom, the family moved to the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. Nagatani earned his B.F.A. in 1968 from California State University, Los Angeles, and in the late 1970s was accepted at UCLA, where he was awarded an M.F.A. in 1980. From 1983 to 1989 Nagatani collaborated with painter Andrée Tracey, building and photographing narrative photo-tableaux with a large-format 20-by-24-inch Polaroid camera. They worked in a style that combined elements of advertising and set design, combining painted backdrops, furniture, objects suspended from monofilament, live figures, and previously photographed images. Nagatani described his work with Tracey: “Our photographic scenarios served as the perfect arena in which to explore our themes of disaster beyond our control. In this blend of fact and fiction, the threat was (and still is) so great that it seemed unreal, the reality so awful it was/is impossible to comprehend.”1 In 1987 Nagatani moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and began teaching in the department of art and art history at the University of New Mexico, where he is currently professor of photography.

With the series Nuclear Enchantment (1988–91), Nagatani continued to develop ideas and themes that he and Tracey had devised in their collaborations. However, since he now lived in the state where the nuclear bomb had been invented, he felt it important to create work that referenced the history and landscape of New Mexico. His photograph, Japanese Children’s Day Carp Banners, Paguate Village, Jackpile Mine Uranium Tailings, Laguna Pueblo Reservation, New Mexico, began with initial research on the forty sites associated with nuclear energy in New Mexico and the specific issues associated with each site. The Jackpile Mine happens to be on a Native American reservation, and Nagatani wanted to draw attention to hazards that the children of Laguna Pueblo face. He traveled to the site and photographed the landscape, printing these images in color. Nagatani appropriated the design of a 19th-century woodblock by Ando Hiroshige from his 100 Famous Views of Edo, and selectively hand-colored the photograph. He later photographed the carp banners, reproduced them in color, and collaged them onto the master photograph.

Whether photographing Japanese-American internment camps, Native American sacred sites, or nuclear hazards, Nagatani utilizes a potent blend of profundity, humor, and political engagement in his work. This artist-activist creates staged photographs that draw attention to America’s toxic legacy, an enduring reminder of our predilection for convenience over safety. His art demonstrates that memory and mortality can be expressed through the genre of landscape photography, whether real or imagined. —J.N.

1. “Patrick Nagatani at The Center for Creative Photography,” www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa234.htm (accessed 26 March 04).

(SJMA Selections publication, 2004)

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