The Heart Mountain Story:
Photographs by Hansel Mieth and Otto Hage

Exhibition Statement

The photographs in this exhibition were taken for Life Magazine. From their own experience, Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel understood just what was at stake and brought more than just camera and film to the assignment. These photographs of compassion came from bringing the hand to where the heart is and communicating a kinship with the subjects.

Hansel Mieth (1909-1998) and Otto Hagel (1909-1973) were raised in the small town of Fellbach outside of Stuttgart, Germany. They immigrated to the United States only to be caught up in the Great Depression. Working as migratoiy farm workers on the West Coast, the couple pursued photography to record the lives of the poor and oppressed. The combination of their photographic skills and a kinship with their subjects produced compassionate photographs that caught the attention of government officials and national magazines. Otto Hagel became a freelance photographer for several magazines, including Time, Fortune and Life, while Hansel Mieth became the second woman photographer on the staff of Life Magazine.

On a bitter cold day in January of 1943, Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel arrived at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in northwest Wyoming. Hansel Mieth recalls, “My heart bled for the poor people made to endure those Arctic conditions, just because they were decreed enemies and dangerous.” She felt an immediate kinship with the internees. “When I look at these pictures now, I feel they are a group of pictures that speak for themselves. And, my understanding and love go out to those people who were interned there.”

-Grace Schaub

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