https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories daily 0.75 2025-09-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584063118400-YZNJK2Z4SPO9I1TA6N51/Abbey_4.jpg Stories from our Archives https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/2025/9/17/a-moment-in-time monthly 0.5 2025-09-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/05afe12c-bec5-4a76-b5f1-35c19a2576fe/Redford-Foreword-RGB.jpg Stories from our Archives - A Moment in Time - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/2023/11/15/richard-coons-and-coons-gallery monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/57327ed4-e0d0-4e81-858d-53c20033c9ea/Richard-Minarets.jpg Stories from our Archives - Richard Coons and his gallery - Painting the backcountry Richard Coons on a painting trip in the Sierra backcountry. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/58b5127f-d2dd-4e7e-9906-f371ad6c88d5/MtTom_300_1800.jpg Stories from our Archives - Richard Coons and his gallery - Mt. Tom Richard Coons, oil painting on Belgian linen, 30” x 36” Private collection https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/2022/9/30/john-fischer monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/bf0e6e82-0ea6-4645-956b-f57ccdebf493/Fischer480_347.jpg Stories from our Archives - John Fischer - Make it stand out John Fischer, early 1970s. ©2010 Spotted Dog Press https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/2021/1/12/museum-of-modern-art monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610458700431-7CRGTMFAKQVTKCDO1G67/US-Camera_BFE.jpg Stories from our Archives - Born Free and Equal at MOMA, 1946 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/2020/3/12/0m73u9uuwxq2sjfr4iw1lluaq2wgkt monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584067976622-2F4J4EHV0RJY3YE6O1L4/IMG_0360_1200.jpg Stories from our Archives - Southern Inyo’s Malpais Mesa https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584067061697-NJPJH66D7FXEZZBFRQ16/Malpais-2500.jpg Stories from our Archives - Southern Inyo’s Malpais Mesa View from Malpais Mesa overlooking Owens Lake (Photo: ©2020 Wynne Benti) https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/like-a-boss-ruth-dyar-mendenhall-californias-pioneer-rock-climber monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1528409642561-HO1VJUI87DC01424EN7T/Ruth-HalfDome-WM.jpg Stories from our Archives - Like A Boss: Ruth Dyar Mendenhall—California's Pioneer Rock Climber https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/2017/3/11/something-about-mary-dedecker monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1489272474351-A3VOEVY5UTHB2LKD90DQ/image-asset.jpeg Stories from our Archives - Something About Mary DeDecker https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1489269622707-904DL7FLMOF49U1HHP5B/image-asset.jpeg Stories from our Archives - Something About Mary DeDecker https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/mount-whitney-ever-changing-elevation monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/Malpais+Mesa monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/Owens+Valley monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/Death+Valley monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/Yosemite monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/Mt.+Whitney monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/Owens+Lake monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/Mary+DeDecker monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/USGS monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/stories/tag/Eastern+Sierra monthly 0.5 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/about daily 0.75 2024-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584205106954-6CX8QH62W4LGLXK26RO0/Muir_1.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584205266461-XKC3Z7HWO5SF3M4CXHCG/FDH_1500.jpg About - Our first book, published in 1995. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1595350349368-9EZUUIAAJI11CYSUJWVQ/Arroyo-w_girls-andy.jpg About - Australian cattle dog Syd, was the inspiration for the Spotted Dog Press name and logo. Wynne Benti and geologist Andy Zdon pictured with stoic Syd, the inspiration for the Spotted Dog Press name and logo, and K.D., the lean mean hiking machine in the Arroyo Seco, San Gabriel Mountain foothills. Both were adopted from the City of Los Angeles East Valley Animal Shelter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584205266461-XKC3Z7HWO5SF3M4CXHCG/FDH_1500.jpg About - Our first book, published in 1995. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1595350349368-9EZUUIAAJI11CYSUJWVQ/Arroyo-w_girls-andy.jpg About - Australian cattle dog Syd, was the inspiration for the Spotted Dog Press name and logo. Wynne Benti and geologist Andy Zdon pictured with stoic Syd, the inspiration for the Spotted Dog Press name and logo, and K.D., the lean mean hiking machine in the Arroyo Seco, San Gabriel Mountain foothills. Both were adopted from the City of Los Angeles East Valley Animal Shelter. https://www.spotteddogpress.com/contact daily 0.75 2020-03-05 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/privacy daily 0.75 2020-03-05 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/terms-of-use daily 0.75 2020-03-05 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/ansel-adams-born-free-and-equal daily 0.75 2024-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610385701548-Y28QXB48LULTR328ODDO/JANM-Booksigning_1250.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal Twenty-five years ago, in between the water-starved fruit trees planted during World War II, the stone-lined ruins of Manzanar’s gardens were covered with weeds and mounds of dirt left behind by arrowhead and bottle hunters. Only one original building remained intact and it was used to house road equipment. Manzanar deserved better. Clipping provided by the late George M. Wakiji Click on image to enlarge https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610297355852-75T59EX28IVVHOGQIE7Y/IdahoBFE2.21.2007_1800.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal The 2002 Spotted Dog Press edition of Born Free and Equal was one more voice for Manzanar, that of its author, Ansel Adams. It was circulated in schools, museums, and libraries, and made its way to the desks of legislators. As an educational tool, it was a reminder of what people do to each other, without empathy and beyond civility. Controversy is not without its obstacles and the project had many, but it also had the support of those whose voices were heard publicly and quietly behind the scenes—Sue Kunitomi Embrey, Archie Miyatake, Joyce Okazaki, Vernon Miller, Bill Michael, Jonathan Kirsch, Alissa Hiraga, the Friends of the Eastern California Museum, The Rafu Shimpo, and Adams’ family who saw that the book was carried at the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park. New edition scheduled for Summer 2021. Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association in Bishop, California, partnering with the National Park Service is currently working on an updated edition of Born Free and Equal that will be sold at exclusively at Manzanar. Clipping provided by the late George M. Wakiji https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610210463072-7L6SE6QJS8L2X3AKDHLV/0001BFE.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - 1942 At the onset of World War II, Ansel Adams was living in Yosemite National Park with his wife, Virginia Best, daughter of oil painter, Henry Cassie Best, and their children. Adams' wanted to help with the war effort, but he was too old to enlist. He volunteered for a number of war-related photography assignments. He both escorted and photographed Army troops in Yosemite National Park training for mountain warfare in the European theater. He taught photography to the Signal Corps at Fort Ord, and traveled to the Presidio in San Francisco to print classified photographs of Japanese military installations on the Aleutian Islands. Despite his volunteer efforts, he was frustrated that he could not do more. Image: Spotted Dog Press Collection https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610215954085-D0SFVDB3FQ382BNLENX4/09-11-Final_1-RGB.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - 1988 In 1988, Wynne Benti canoed five hundred miles on the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon Territory with a Sierra Club group of six canoes. Two things happened that year. Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, a fact she was reminded of by every Canadian she met, and the Canadian government formally apologized for interning its citizens during WWII. When the trip’s outfitter learned she worked for NBC in Burbank, he showed her a front page newspaper clipping of his grandparents. They had just received reparations of $20,000 from the Canadian government. More important than the money, which would never compensate the financial loss of their farmlands in coastal British Columbia, was their government’s apology. Benti had never heard of internment. The outfitter, Albert Omotani, named for the province where the internment camp in which he was born was located, said, “Your country did this too.” A year later, federal legislation (H.R. 543) established Manzanar as a National Historic Site. Up until 2002, no significant funding had been appropriated for the site’s development. The Eastern California Museum in Independence, California and seven miles north of Manzanar, served as the rock and mortar repository for all historic documents and artifacts, and as a meeting place for visitors to the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. The Friends of the Eastern California Museum was a small island of humanity in a very conservative county, but they were on a mission. For years, they diligently followed a long and circuitous path to see that Manzanar was respected and remembered. Image: One of the many proposed cover designs for the Spotted Dog Press edition. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610387986660-0W1BAA3RH3230LFDUSCX/100_2872.JPG Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal In 1997, having just moved to Inyo County from Los Angeles with husband, Andy Zdon, Benti wrote to the editor of the Inyo Register in response to a letter by a local citizen, condemning any federal funding to develop the languishing Manzanar site as a bonafide National Park site. Shortly after the letter was published, she received a phone call from Eastern California Museum director, Bill Michael, asking if she would join the board. One evening, Benti arrived early at the museum for a board meeting with the Friends of the Eastern California Museum. She was approached by Michael, who held up, eye-level with both hands, a well-worn red softcover book, entitled, Born Free and Equal. He said, “Ansel Adams wrote this.” Benti had studied photography at UC Davis with Harvey Himelfarb. She knew Adams’ work as a landscape photographer and his development of the Zone System with Fred Archer, but had never seen his photographs of the war relocation center at Manzanar. Michael said, “You should publish this. It’s in the public domain.” Not quite, she would later learn after taking on the project. A year later, in 2001, the Spotted Dog Press edition of Born Free and Equal was at press when 2966 people lost their lives in a terrorist attack on September 11. Just getting to that point had been a challenging journey of publishing twists and turns. Image: Wynne Benti remembering Sue Kunitomi Embrey at the 2007 Manzanar Pilgrimage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610303877528-6IEZZ8PJZ0I73D43A5WT/00_BFE-Cover.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - 2000 Benti hired Thomson & Thomson (Thomson Reuters) to conduct an extensive copyright search of Born Free and Equal. The Center for Creative Photography was contacted for permissions, but queries went unanswered for months. Finally, someone told her to contact William Turnage at the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust in the Bay Area. She had never worked with Adams’ images beyond the photographs of him taken by fellow hikers on Sierra Club High Trips and published in the Spotted Dog Press edition of Norman Clyde’s Close Ups of the High Sierra. His photograph of Joyce Nakamura (Okazaki) was chosen for the final cover. Now a librarian from Seal Beach, California, sixty years earlier, Joyce and other American children were incarcerated with their families at Manzanar and war relocation centers across the West. The out-of-focus image of the American flag behind Joyce was added just after 9/11. Image: Final cover design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610372351551-PJRVSNOHLHCGQZ0ZO98U/Adams-LOC-Donation-Letter Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - Paper and ink The 1944 U.S. Camera original was printed on war rationed paper and quickly disappeared from newspaper stands within weeks of being released. Many former internees speculated that the books were removed by the government. One said she had visited Adams and saw the books stored in boxes at his home. In 1965, Adams’ donated the collection to the Library of Congress. He concluded his letter: “All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use.” In an effort to give Adams’ work the deference it deserved, the 128 page, 8.5”x11” edition was printed on a sheetfed press using duotone photographs (black and a PMS color) on 157 gsm matte art paper. As previously mentioned, the book was at press when the World Trade Center was attacked. The original jacket was a sole photograph, that of Joyce Nakamura Okazaki. At the last minute, Benti added the stock photograph of the American flag. Fifty-eight years after U.S. Camera published Ansel Adams’ original book, Spotted Dog Press, released Born Free and Equal in January 2002. Photo: Adams’ letter to the Library of Congress https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610224515096-Z43UT76TXMJI0VT2O4CD/Toyo+Miyatake+at+the+Manzanar+entrance+%C2%A92021+Spotted+Dog+Press Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - Toyo Miyatake While working at Manzanar, Adams met Los Angeles photographer Toyo Miyatake who was interned with his wife and children as a result of Executive Order 9066 issued on February 19, 1942. Long before the war, Miyatake had studied with the photographer Edward Weston and had established his own respected photography studio in downtown Los Angeles. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and with little notice from the United States government, the Miyatake family, like all American families of Japanese ancestry, had to leave behind everything they owned and were shuttled off to internment camps with no more than a few suitcases. Those who were not able to transfer their property deeds to friends for their homes and commercial properties before their internment, lost everything. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce supported Executive Order 9066. One of the reasons for their support was that Japanese farmers owned some of the most valuable coastal lands in Culver City, Santa Monica and on the Palos Verdes peninsula. One way to gain to access to that land at below real estate market value was to remove the owners. Photo: Toyo Miyatake at the Manzanar War Relocation Center gate by Ansel Adams. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610288148349-R7603H03B7C0OYE9TVBP/Miyatake-camera-1500.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - Miyatake Camera Though Toyo Miyatake was prohibited from taking his camera equipment with him to Manzanar, he realized the importance of what was happening. No one knew how it was all going to end, what future lay before them. Miyatake made his own camera from scraps of wood and a lens that was smuggled into camp by one of his film vendors in Los Angeles. Photo: Toyo Miyatake’s camera. ©2001 Archie Miyatake/Miyatake Studio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610291627612-K80E2OL4L68OQLYKVPZJ/Archie+Miyatake+at+Manzanar Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal Toyo’ Miyatake’s son, Archie, wrote about the family’s experience in an essay entitled “Manzanar Remembered” for the Spotted Dog Press edition: “One day, my father called me to the barrack and said, “I have to tell you something. As a photographer I have a responsibility to record life here at the camp so this kind of thing will never happen again.” Speaking in Japanese, he told me that he had smuggled in a camera lens and ground glass. He showed me the lens and film holder. At that moment, we never imagined that he would eventually become the camp’s official photographer.” Photo: Archie Miyatake at Manzanar War Relocation Center, inyo County, California. Photo: ©2021 Miyatake Studio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610385701548-Y28QXB48LULTR328ODDO/JANM-Booksigning_1250.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal Twenty-five years ago, in between the water-starved fruit trees planted during World War II, the stone-lined ruins of Manzanar’s gardens were covered with weeds and mounds of dirt left behind by arrowhead and bottle hunters. Only one original building remained intact and it was used to house road equipment. Manzanar deserved better. Clipping provided by the late George M. Wakiji Click on image to enlarge https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610297355852-75T59EX28IVVHOGQIE7Y/IdahoBFE2.21.2007_1800.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal The 2002 Spotted Dog Press edition of Born Free and Equal was one more voice for Manzanar, that of its author, Ansel Adams. It was circulated in schools, museums, and libraries, and made its way to the desks of legislators. As an educational tool, it was a reminder of what people do to each other, without empathy and beyond civility. Controversy is not without its obstacles and the project had many, but it also had the support of those whose voices were heard publicly and quietly behind the scenes—Sue Kunitomi Embrey, Archie Miyatake, Joyce Okazaki, Vernon Miller, Bill Michael, Jonathan Kirsch, Alissa Hiraga, the Friends of the Eastern California Museum, The Rafu Shimpo, and Adams’ family who saw that the book was carried at the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park. New edition scheduled for Summer 2021. Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association in Bishop, California, partnering with the National Park Service is currently working on an updated edition of Born Free and Equal that will be sold at exclusively at Manzanar. Clipping provided by the late George M. Wakiji https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610210463072-7L6SE6QJS8L2X3AKDHLV/0001BFE.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - 1942 At the onset of World War II, Ansel Adams was living in Yosemite National Park with his wife, Virginia Best, daughter of oil painter, Henry Cassie Best, and their children. Adams' wanted to help with the war effort, but he was too old to enlist. He volunteered for a number of war-related photography assignments. He both escorted and photographed Army troops in Yosemite National Park training for mountain warfare in the European theater. He taught photography to the Signal Corps at Fort Ord, and traveled to the Presidio in San Francisco to print classified photographs of Japanese military installations on the Aleutian Islands. Despite his volunteer efforts, he was frustrated that he could not do more. Image: Spotted Dog Press Collection https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610215954085-D0SFVDB3FQ382BNLENX4/09-11-Final_1-RGB.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - 1988 In 1988, Wynne Benti canoed five hundred miles on the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon Territory with a Sierra Club group of six canoes. Two things happened that year. Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, a fact she was reminded of by every Canadian she met, and the Canadian government formally apologized for interning its citizens during WWII. When the trip’s outfitter learned she worked for NBC in Burbank, he showed her a front page newspaper clipping of his grandparents. They had just received reparations of $20,000 from the Canadian government. More important than the money, which would never compensate the financial loss of their farmlands in coastal British Columbia, was their government’s apology. Benti had never heard of internment. The outfitter, Albert Omotani, named for the province where the internment camp in which he was born was located, said, “Your country did this too.” A year later, federal legislation (H.R. 543) established Manzanar as a National Historic Site. Up until 2002, no significant funding had been appropriated for the site’s development. The Eastern California Museum in Independence, California and seven miles north of Manzanar, served as the rock and mortar repository for all historic documents and artifacts, and as a meeting place for visitors to the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. The Friends of the Eastern California Museum was a small island of humanity in a very conservative county, but they were on a mission. For years, they diligently followed a long and circuitous path to see that Manzanar was respected and remembered. Image: One of the many proposed cover designs for the Spotted Dog Press edition. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610387986660-0W1BAA3RH3230LFDUSCX/100_2872.JPG Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal In 1997, having just moved to Inyo County from Los Angeles with husband, Andy Zdon, Benti wrote to the editor of the Inyo Register in response to a letter by a local citizen, condemning any federal funding to develop the languishing Manzanar site as a bonafide National Park site. Shortly after the letter was published, she received a phone call from Eastern California Museum director, Bill Michael, asking if she would join the board. One evening, Benti arrived early at the museum for a board meeting with the Friends of the Eastern California Museum. She was approached by Michael, who held up, eye-level with both hands, a well-worn red softcover book, entitled, Born Free and Equal. He said, “Ansel Adams wrote this.” Benti had studied photography at UC Davis with Harvey Himelfarb. She knew Adams’ work as a landscape photographer and his development of the Zone System with Fred Archer, but had never seen his photographs of the war relocation center at Manzanar. Michael said, “You should publish this. It’s in the public domain.” Not quite, she would later learn after taking on the project. A year later, in 2001, the Spotted Dog Press edition of Born Free and Equal was at press when 2966 people lost their lives in a terrorist attack on September 11. Just getting to that point had been a challenging journey of publishing twists and turns. Image: Wynne Benti remembering Sue Kunitomi Embrey at the 2007 Manzanar Pilgrimage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610303877528-6IEZZ8PJZ0I73D43A5WT/00_BFE-Cover.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - 2000 Benti hired Thomson & Thomson (Thomson Reuters) to conduct an extensive copyright search of Born Free and Equal. The Center for Creative Photography was contacted for permissions, but queries went unanswered for months. Finally, someone told her to contact William Turnage at the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust in the Bay Area. She had never worked with Adams’ images beyond the photographs of him taken by fellow hikers on Sierra Club High Trips and published in the Spotted Dog Press edition of Norman Clyde’s Close Ups of the High Sierra. His photograph of Joyce Nakamura (Okazaki) was chosen for the final cover. Now a librarian from Seal Beach, California, sixty years earlier, Joyce and other American children were incarcerated with their families at Manzanar and war relocation centers across the West. The out-of-focus image of the American flag behind Joyce was added just after 9/11. Image: Final cover design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610372351551-PJRVSNOHLHCGQZ0ZO98U/Adams-LOC-Donation-Letter Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - Paper and ink The 1944 U.S. Camera original was printed on war rationed paper and quickly disappeared from newspaper stands within weeks of being released. Many former internees speculated that the books were removed by the government. One said she had visited Adams and saw the books stored in boxes at his home. In 1965, Adams’ donated the collection to the Library of Congress. He concluded his letter: “All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use.” In an effort to give Adams’ work the deference it deserved, the 128 page, 8.5”x11” edition was printed on a sheetfed press using duotone photographs (black and a PMS color) on 157 gsm matte art paper. As previously mentioned, the book was at press when the World Trade Center was attacked. The original jacket was a sole photograph, that of Joyce Nakamura Okazaki. At the last minute, Benti added the stock photograph of the American flag. Fifty-eight years after U.S. Camera published Ansel Adams’ original book, Spotted Dog Press, released Born Free and Equal in January 2002. Photo: Adams’ letter to the Library of Congress https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610224515096-Z43UT76TXMJI0VT2O4CD/Toyo+Miyatake+at+the+Manzanar+entrance+%C2%A92021+Spotted+Dog+Press Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - Toyo Miyatake While working at Manzanar, Adams met Los Angeles photographer Toyo Miyatake who was interned with his wife and children as a result of Executive Order 9066 issued on February 19, 1942. Long before the war, Miyatake had studied with the photographer Edward Weston and had established his own respected photography studio in downtown Los Angeles. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and with little notice from the United States government, the Miyatake family, like all American families of Japanese ancestry, had to leave behind everything they owned and were shuttled off to internment camps with no more than a few suitcases. Those who were not able to transfer their property deeds to friends for their homes and commercial properties before their internment, lost everything. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce supported Executive Order 9066. One of the reasons for their support was that Japanese farmers owned some of the most valuable coastal lands in Culver City, Santa Monica and on the Palos Verdes peninsula. One way to gain to access to that land at below real estate market value was to remove the owners. Photo: Toyo Miyatake at the Manzanar War Relocation Center gate by Ansel Adams. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610288148349-R7603H03B7C0OYE9TVBP/Miyatake-camera-1500.jpg Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal - Miyatake Camera Though Toyo Miyatake was prohibited from taking his camera equipment with him to Manzanar, he realized the importance of what was happening. No one knew how it was all going to end, what future lay before them. Miyatake made his own camera from scraps of wood and a lens that was smuggled into camp by one of his film vendors in Los Angeles. Photo: Toyo Miyatake’s camera. ©2001 Archie Miyatake/Miyatake Studio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610291627612-K80E2OL4L68OQLYKVPZJ/Archie+Miyatake+at+Manzanar Ansel Adams-Born Free and Equal Toyo’ Miyatake’s son, Archie, wrote about the family’s experience in an essay entitled “Manzanar Remembered” for the Spotted Dog Press edition: “One day, my father called me to the barrack and said, “I have to tell you something. As a photographer I have a responsibility to record life here at the camp so this kind of thing will never happen again.” Speaking in Japanese, he told me that he had smuggled in a camera lens and ground glass. He showed me the lens and film holder. At that moment, we never imagined that he would eventually become the camp’s official photographer.” Photo: Archie Miyatake at Manzanar War Relocation Center, inyo County, California. Photo: ©2021 Miyatake Studio https://www.spotteddogpress.com/collections daily 0.75 2021-01-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610306244517-LNCHUXJJWS48UNAPR9VH/Burns-Cartoon-ZdonIMG_3521.jpg Collections - Collections Bainbridge Island Museum Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley Big Santa Anita Historical Society Binghamton University California State Library Carnegie Mellon University California State University, San Bernardino Library Central Nevada Museum Death Valley National Park Earlham College Eastern California Museum Grand Canyon National Park Go For Broke Foundation Hennepin County Library Honolulu Academy of the Arts Japanese American National Museum Kenyon College Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Manzanar National Historic Site Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Mojave National Preserve NARA National Park Service Pacific West Regional Headquarters Nevada Historical Society Nevada State Museum Prescott College San Bernardino County Library San Bernardino Public Library University of Santa Clara Santa Paula Museum of Art Sequoia Natural History Association Skirball Cultural Center Smithsonian Institution Spring Mountain Ranch State Park St. Lawrence University State of Nevada Stetson University The Ansel Adams Galleries University of Nevada Reno United State Forest Service, multiple jurisdictions White Pine Public Museum Yosemite National Park and on our readers’ bookshelves Photo: Author Cameron Burns signs a book for Desert Summits author Andy Zdon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1610306244517-LNCHUXJJWS48UNAPR9VH/Burns-Cartoon-ZdonIMG_3521.jpg Collections - Collections Bainbridge Island Museum Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley Big Santa Anita Historical Society Binghamton University California State Library Carnegie Mellon University California State University, San Bernardino Library Central Nevada Museum Death Valley National Park Earlham College Eastern California Museum Grand Canyon National Park Go For Broke Foundation Hennepin County Library Honolulu Academy of the Arts Japanese American National Museum Kenyon College Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Manzanar National Historic Site Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Mojave National Preserve NARA National Park Service Pacific West Regional Headquarters Nevada Historical Society Nevada State Museum Prescott College San Bernardino County Library San Bernardino Public Library University of Santa Clara Santa Paula Museum of Art Sequoia Natural History Association Skirball Cultural Center Smithsonian Institution Spring Mountain Ranch State Park St. Lawrence University State of Nevada Stetson University The Ansel Adams Galleries University of Nevada Reno United State Forest Service, multiple jurisdictions White Pine Public Museum Yosemite National Park and on our readers’ bookshelves Photo: Author Cameron Burns signs a book for Desert Summits author Andy Zdon https://www.spotteddogpress.com/new-gallery daily 0.75 2025-09-16 https://www.spotteddogpress.com/home-1 daily 1.0 2025-09-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/ad1095f3-50ee-4dc1-9add-3b0cce7b3749/CHS_First.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/05afe12c-bec5-4a76-b5f1-35c19a2576fe/Redford-Foreword-RGB.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584425798293-N16GZPMENK9M19I5J3UP/DS_AZ.jpg Home Author Andy Zdon on Turtle Mountain in the Mojave Desert. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584477436912-28K9CJFRLR61CAE8S68A/LVFDH-A.jpg Home Round-trip to the summit of Mt. Charleston from Lee Canyon Ski Area (Photo: Wynne Benti) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584754172399-OBVLIWZBIXW72KK9C0RQ/FDHLV.jpg Home - Winner of the Pup-itzer Prize for outdoor fun! https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop daily 0.75 2026-03-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1584049285657-X3718VZB28RGQFO9ZKX2/Hey_1.jpg Shop https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/robert-clunie-plein-air-painter-of-the-sierra-nevada monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1482113426816-Z4U0XV22OSCEG6VUWL64/Clunie_1400.jpg Shop - Robert Clunie: Plein Air Painter of the Sierra Nevada https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/high-wild monthly 0.5 2026-03-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1482112074081-E8OSHF10PK5LSW4Z39NG/HW_1400.jpg Shop - High & Wild: Essays and Photographs on Wilderness Adventure https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/woman-on-the-rocks monthly 0.5 2026-03-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1482107486711-0ZYY79J393HZ3XJO1DHT/WOR_1400.jpg Shop - Woman on the Rocks: The Mountaineering Letters of Ruth Dyar Mendenhall https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/mojave-desert-trails monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1482106200552-NJAYHU0F5FAR4NX7WVLF/MDT_1400.jpg Shop - Mojave Desert Trails https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/hiking-nevadas-county-high-points monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1482106323474-EDNFQ7A4K03USYLHGBHW/NVCHP_1400.jpg Shop - Hiking Nevada's County High Points https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1567290571920-9YNFJNQO37NWLBHN8GRY/NVCHP.jpg Shop - Hiking Nevada's County High Points https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/desert-summits-a-climbing-hiking-guide monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1482106571317-ON98RS648UCR7UEDNJNE/DS2_1400.jpg Shop - Desert Summits https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/mary-dedecker-signed monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1474945997719-MBPDJ8QRHHEBF9GOL4OD/DV2Y_1400.jpg Shop - Death Valley to Yosemite: Frontier Mining Camps and Ghost Towns (SIGNED) https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/favorite-dog-hikes-in-and-around-las-vegas monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1474944143920-XDWBVCC4RZN6ZYQWDZEH/LVFDH_1400.jpg Shop - Favorite Dog Hikes In and Around Las Vegas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1567290925450-X3V5S52GYR2WNBOETE8Y/LVFD-2500.jpg Shop - Favorite Dog Hikes In and Around Las Vegas https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/vo9a0ww8w8b0xo480nfi608pmi3paz monthly 0.5 2026-03-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1474943168711-SNFW8UF7FKPFPXDGLUO9/OFLV_1400.jpg Shop - Out From Las Vegas https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/fs981ot1qplp7duzrhwmf79y8r9rfz monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1474931415517-NW7N0JKL5IES1QV1CDXX/GCT_1400.jpg Shop - Grand Canyon Treks https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/gkwh8brp2l9uj4qeos61xcqxba31tk monthly 0.5 2025-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1474931196367-PN62V0UYGDXAEGVR8BYB/GCT-signed_1400.jpg Shop - Grand Canyon Treks (SIGNED) https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/climbing-mt-whitney monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1474920939759-I3T2I6DN3O77S8UK4W0R/Croft.jpg Shop - Climbing Mt. Whitney https://www.spotteddogpress.com/shop/p/close-ups-of-the-high-sierra monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57e9683ebe6594dab8beb0ce/1474930874656-R6KNEKURBDCH3HD4E2QF/CHS_1400.jpg Shop - Close Ups of the High Sierra