Nobuho Nagasawa

$\\Commonspot\internet-site\images\bullet1$ Art Projects

Nobuho Nagasawa
Toyo Miyatake's Camera
1993

Project Area: Little Tokyo
Project: First Street North Improvement Project
Project Location: 369 E. First Street
Project Type: CRA Initiated

Description:

"Toyo Miyatake's Camera" features a box camera on a tripod that is three times its original size. Visible from both sides of the street, the sculpture projects images after dark on a screen behind the window of the Japanese American National Museum. The camera itself is a replica of a makeshift camera used by noted photographer Toyo Miyatake while he was at Manzanar Internment Camp during Word War II. The images are photos taken by Miyatake of life in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles and in the Manzanar Internment Camp during the 1940s.

Artist Profile

A native of Japan, Nobuho Nagasawa is a New York City-based artist who received her art education in the Netherlands and Germany. After receiving a Masters degree from Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin, a 1986 invitation from California Institute of the Arts brought her to the United States, where she studied visual art, critical theory, and music. Nagasawa’s works involve in-depth research into a culture’s history and memory as well as involving extensive community participation. Recipient of the 1997 Design Excellence Award for Architecture and Public Art from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Nagasawa has been commissioned for more than 20 public art projects including the Little Tokyo Metro Gold Line Station in Los Angeles and a 42,000 square-foot government plaza for the Urban Government Center in Japan in 2000.