Georges of Our World
The high school class of 1944 at Manzanar produces a yearbook, Our World.
Toyo Miyatake is the class photographer.
In the context of the camps, the ritual of the class photo takes on its own specific meanings: the performance of a normal routine in an abnormal circumstance; the senior photo is a declaration of independence, at once assimilative and defiant.
I think about Roland Barthes' idea of the studium (the aesthetics) and the punctum (an unintended detail that captures the imagination of and creates an emotional response in the viewer; different viewers may find different puncta in the same image). I identify a punctum in these photos: the name George.