"Seed store"
1 2020-04-30T18:05:47-04:00 Kate McDonald 306bb1134bc892ab2ada669bed7aecb100ef7d5f 35 2 "This is a seed store. The old gent has made himself a pair of bifocals by taping two pairs of glasses together. He is using the far vision through the top pair only now, but back to his newspapers he will look through both. Notice the cans in the back made out of old beer cans. The tin shps make most of their products out of empty beer cans, funnels, pencil boxes, and cartons & boxes of all sizes. You will notice he smokes Camel cigarettes with an ivory holder, and the dragon ash tray is Okinawan pottery. Oh, on the extreme left at the level of his shoulder is a funnel made of old Shlitz cans." plain 2021-09-16T16:12:01-04:00 The Gail Project 1952-1953 Dustin Wright Charles Eugene Gail The Gail Project; University of California, Santa Cruz Used with permission. Dustin Wright DW-0005 Kate McDonald 306bb1134bc892ab2ada669bed7aecb100ef7d5fThis page is referenced by:
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2020-04-30T18:05:34-04:00
Daily Life and Work
17
Images of daily life and labor in early 1950s Okinawa
plain
2021-10-08T16:37:36-04:00
1952
Dustin Wright
Gail, Charles
Many of the photos in the collection show Okinawans engaging in their daily labor practices. In this section, we see a display of labor and daily life that, upon first glance, appears to be quite romantic. In some images, the people in the photos are far enough from the lens to render them as simply props for a much grander appreciation for the landscape. People are smiling for the camera as they continue with their endeavors. Did Gail patronize these shops, which might explain the beaming smiles from some of the shopkeepers? Does the image simply capture a relationship—that of the militourist and the Okinawan vendor—that was already an important economic system in early 1950s basetowns throughout the Pacific? (Teresia Teaiwa developed the term “militourism” to describe the relationship in which tourism is infused by military networks, while at the same time the “tourist industry masks the military force behind it.” Teaiwa 1999, 262. See also Lyons 1995.) It is safe to assume that this was not the first time that the Okinawans in the pictures had interacted with an American cameraperson. If some images depict people smiling at the lens, others show people either indifferent or even annoyed at the cameraman.
Some photos in the “People” page, which completes this module, could very well have been incorporated into this section on daily life and labor. This is because in Gail's images of occupied Okinawa, it is apparent that there was no distinct line between work and leisure. Here, I have chosen to include those photos in which both photographer and photographed seem primarily focused on economic activity.
