Event Details

Photographer and writer Tom Graves leads a discussion on his veterans’ portraits and interviews, After the Wars, and screens a DVD on similar subjects.

Photography and Communications Students are invited to a presentation by photographer Tom Graves. His latest documentary project, After the Wars: Lessons from America’s Nisei Heroes, will be exhibited at the Presidio of San Francisco Officers’ Club gallery. After touring the gallery, the photographer will screen a short presentation and answer questions on the portraits and the project.

Open to all students and faculty, the presentations will be held at the gallery on Thursday, November 19 from 1:00 - 3:00 pm and 3:00-5:00 p.m. The Officers' Club is located at 50 Moraga Ave. in the Presidio of San Francisco.

Part of a larger exhibit by the National Japanese American Historical Society NJAHS entitled Prejudice and Patriotism, the photography exhibit comprises a series of black and white portraits and interviews of the men and women who served our country during WWII and the Korean War in spite of their families’ internment by the U.S. government.

In the interviews, the veterans share their experiences and memories, teaching us of War, racism and our own rights as Americans. The government’s panicked actions against Japanese Americans in the days following the Pearl Harbor attack is often compared to the reactions against Muslim Americans after 9-11. During WWII, the same young American men who lost their civil liberties because of their race, became the heroes who protected those liberties for Americans of every race.

Tom Graves is San Francisco photographer. He studied portraiture with Philippe Halsman and taught for seven years at the New School (now New School University) Parsons School of Design in New York City. His clients include AT&T, Cisco, Merrill Lynch, 3M, Union Bank, the New York Times, People, and Time magazine. His work has taken him to 50 states, as well as to Asia and Europe.

After the Wars portraits and interviews have been displayed at the American Legion National Convention, Fort Knox, the National Steinbeck Center, NJAHS headquarters, San Francisco City Hall and Webster University.