Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Darkroom Confidential: Developing the Jun Fujita Story with Graham Lee, Part 2

• Natalie Zett

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Step into the past and peek behind the lens with legendary photographer Jun Fujita - join me as I continue my captivating conversation with Fujita's great-nephew, Graham Lee. We'll hear insider stories about Fujita's unique photographic style and his creative partnership with his wife Florence Carr Fujita.  (In case you missed it, please listen to Part 1 of our conversation, Through the Lens of Jun Fujita.)

Graham gives us a rare glimpse into the daily life of this innovative artist. Discover Fujita's passion for mathematics and how it may have influenced his pioneering photographic techniques. 

Stay tuned as Graham recounts his own remarkable journey - from studying the arts at Interlochen to launching a newspaper with his parents to his current role at American Girl in Middleton, WI. His diverse experiences shaped his dedication to preserving his great-uncle's legacy.

We end on an exciting cliffhanger about Graham's upcoming book on the man behind the camera. Don't miss this chance to time travel through photography, family histories, and the enduring power of art.

"So, my advice is to use Jun as a model and just live life, try things and, if we're lucky, we'll have sort of a bit of impact, like Jun did." - Graham Harrison Lee


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Natalie Zett:

Hello, this is Natalie, and welcome to Flower in the River, episode 24.

Natalie Zett:

I have a couple of news items for you. First of all, good news on the Eastland Disaster Historical Society front their collection of priceless records will be going to the Newberry Library in Chicago. I'm going to read from the Newberry Library's press release Quote one of the most tragic moments in Chicago history will soon be fully housed in the Newberry Library's expansive collection. The SS Eastland overturned in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915 and took the lives of 844 people who had gathered as part of a Western Electric Company employee outing. The story doesn't end there, however. A wealth of documents remain that depict the aftermath of the tragedy, everything from coroner's records to American Red Cross archives and employment documents from Western Electric until 2019,. These items were stored by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society and mostly inaccessible to anyone interested in learning more about the tragedy. The full collection will soon be added to the Newberry's stacks and digitized thanks to a grant from the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. Again quote there's more to read and I will put a link in the show notes.

Natalie Zett:

Next news item my audiobook Flower in the River is now available on Audible, on Barnes, noble, chirp and any place basically that you can get an audiobook. It's available. Yes, indeed, I did do the audio narrating, and what an experience that was. I learned so much during that year and it did take a year to learn how to narrate a book. It's a lot different than doing a podcast and now it's fun to share my experience with my fellow authors who want to do the same. So I hope you'll take some time to listen to this sample and if you like what you hear, I hope you will buy it. Thank you in advance for that. So we're picking up where we left off last week and I launch into questioning Graham about himself, asking how he developed that connection with his great uncle, Jun Fujita. And what about you, Graham? How did you end up being his person? How did you get the fire? How did you get the? What happened? I mean, I know what happened to me, but what happened to you?

Graham Lee:

It's that line of connection through my family, so Lawrence and her brother Wayne, to my mother, to me and with my wife, so that connection transfers this kind of this knowledge of June. So because I'm an only child, I'm kind of the archivist for the family. My grandfather has always, you know, we're like you should have his books. Now you should have June's books. Oh boy, of course, thanks, yeah, I would love to have them. We have these green drawers of negatives. Oh, wow, cool.

Graham Lee:

And at the time I didn't really I was kind of like, okay, and as things kind of matured, I'm hauling these green drawers from home to home and we're like we should do something with these. And so my wife convinced me, I was like fully supportive of yes, let's, clearly you've got something here in all this history and you're such an interesting man, let's pursue it a little bit, let's write it all down, collect it. It'll be good for the family to have it all documented. And that really was like the impetus of that. So this won't do your listeners any good, but here's an example of an envelope with slides in it.

Natalie Zett:

That's what it looks like. It comes with this is what it looks like. I've seen those gigantic slides.

Graham Lee:

Negatives. And the fascinating things about the negatives is that even the photography part of it is such an art. It's not like your traditional thought of going into a dark room and you put in that in the enlarger and you blow it down onto paper. It's actually three images, three negatives, that make up a single image. So my understanding of it is you shoot the one, so let's call it red. It goes down onto the paper. It's a dye process. So it's kind of like you do the red, you put that down on the paper. You take the other negative out, there's the green, you put that on top with the dye, so you've kind of sandwiched two together. Then you do the RGB blue, put that one down and then you've got your color image. So even the process there is just sort of it probably appealed to his mathematics side. But imagine getting the registration off just a little bit and then you throw on top. He's colorblind slightly.

Natalie Zett:

He's colorblind, I don't know.

Graham Lee:

He would take the proofs out to Florence Again Florence playing another key part. He'd say how does this marigold look? Is it yellow enough?

Natalie Zett:

This whole thing about the process of making a photo. Back then I didn't know all that. I sure most people don't. That's incredible, painstaking. And then the chemicals that have to be used. I did a lot of that too back in the day when you did your own development. Those chemicals they were horrible, they smelled bad, they got on your skin, yoy wow. But now I want to get back to you. Did you grow up in Chicago?

Graham Lee:

No, where did I. Wasn't anticipating that question. Born in Michigan, spent a lot of time in the upper peninsula.

Natalie Zett:

UP, okay, so born in.

Graham Lee:

Muskegon. There was a short stint of time in Long Island, so over in New York. There was summers in Chicago for a brief stint while I was in college, and now I'm here in Wisconsin. I'm a Midwest guy.

Natalie Zett:

I'm just going to Ann Arbor and I lived in Detroit, so yeah.

Graham Lee:

I love the.

Natalie Zett:

Michigan, me too, yeah, really. Go blue, go blue. Yes, exactly, yeah, it's a great state. But I saw too that Jun was in my neck of the woods too, up in, I think, the boundary waters. He had a cabin someplace, voyagers, I think.

Graham Lee:

So rainy yep, it's now Voyagers Park in Rainy Lake. Florence actually purchased the islands. Florence never went there, so it was strictly Jun's getaway. Yep, Wayne, my grandfather was the driver. So Florence and Jun never learned to drive. They were horrible at it when they tried. Oh my gosh. They never did, and I suppose nope so in Chicago. I suppose maybe you just don't need to.

Natalie Zett:

Take the L yeah.

Graham Lee:

Yep Street cars or cabs, or, for Jun, he probably hopped in a police car to get to a scene. Perhaps Jun would take his week-long vacations and take the long trip 600 miles, I think, or so from.

Graham Lee:

Chicago to Rainy Lake nothing small. He could take the train. I have a number of letters from him saying I made a mistake of transferring to St Paul. I'm never going to get you know travel troubles, but once he was in Rainy Lake he had partially built the cabin and helped building a cabin there which still stands today. It's a national historic monument, the park services maintaining it. They're actually redoing it now.

Graham Lee:

They're doing some preservation work on it, which is lovely. And again, when I met them, which truly was walking in Jun's footsteps, my wife and I went up there. It's like we're pursuing Jun. We got to go to Rainy Lake. It was just magnificent, it was so welcoming, it was like and you really felt just kind of spiritually attached to Jun, because now you're there. He walked here, he slept here, he listened to the loons, watched the moon come up.

Natalie Zett:

Oh my gosh, and that's getting emotional. And I can feel those special times from your vibe. Now I want to ask you about your book. You have a book coming out. I'm kind of confused. Do you have a? Did you already?

Graham Lee:

do a yes, so we've got a book. I'm fortunate enough to have the capability to be able to scan and graphic design, take a book from start to end, but that could have been enough and to be like good, we can put this on our shelves, we get it self-published and we got five copies and we're good to go. But the story was felt too big to just kind of keep close on our shelves, so we've been expanding it. We found a publisher, we got sidetracked by the pandemic, so it was all set.

Graham Lee:

And then it was not all set, but we were lucky to connect with a publisher, hat and Beard Press and they've been fabulous and they're working. I think it's we call it an exclusive, but next week it should be posted on their website.

Natalie Zett:

Seriously.

Graham Lee:

Congratulations, Hat and Beard Press dot com as a yeah, so it's been a long, long road and things have changed along the way with our vision, but it's been a really happy partnership and we're just looking forward to having something tangible for people who have been waiting, who are interested in reading more about Jun Fujita Cause there's more stories, there's more details and gosh I've been working on this. I keep thinking. I think my bio in the back says he's been working 10 years on this. Well, that was 10 years ago. I think it's probably closer to 15 plus.

Natalie Zett:

Don't feel bad. It took me like 25 years to put all this together, so it's just. I mean, I had a few breaks, but it is. I don't think I think a book changes you as much as you might change what you're doing. So, yeah, it really. It just and I don't think anybody knows how painstaking and it can be wonderful, but it also just creates a lot of tears. Oh, is that it?

Graham Lee:

This is a demo, so this is not quite this won't be what you'll be getting but this is it's got some some heft to it, so we're excited to share the story. That's a hefty life.

Natalie Zett:

Okay, audience, I want to interrupt here just for a second so you're not confused. What was happening during that exchange is that Graham was holding up a demo version of his forthcoming book and I have to say it looked gorgeous and it will be visible to the world very soon. Congratulations on that. And now the second question. People always ask me do you have a website?

Graham Lee:

I have a Facebook page and an.

Natalie Zett:

Instagram page.

Graham Lee:

Okay, if you, one of the easiest way to find me is Fujita, fujita, behind the camera.

Natalie Zett:

Tell people that.

Graham Lee:

It's kind of the hashtag I've been sharing with people. So the title of the book I hope is Fujita behind the camera. So behind the camera has been the thing to find.

Natalie Zett:

It's so exciting. I'm so happy for you that you are. I can't think of a better caretaker for that legacy than you. I can just tell the love, the knowledge. And you've got the did you. Did you study graphic design? So, so excuse the interruption again, but here is where the Zoom recording went kind of wonky, and what Graham was sharing is that he went to study at Interlochen in Michigan.

Graham Lee:

A year and a half or so it was sort of a an exchange program from the UP, and then I loved it so much I stayed for my senior year.

Natalie Zett:

Fantastic. The desktop publishing was kind of like the thing, so everyone had like your Mac classic.

Graham Lee:

And so after school, after studying English, great, I've got English. What do I do now? I started a newspaper with my parents so kind of an advertising newspaper hybrid and so when things needed fixing, I picked up on fixing computers and stuff. So currently I support technically creative people and it's that I've got my own community, like Jun did, of like technical creative on people.

Natalie Zett:

So Well, tell us about that.

Graham Lee:

Mac and past people.

Natalie Zett:

Do you want to share about that? Are you cool with sharing about that?

Graham Lee:

Whatever American Girl is where I'm working, so I was created in Middleton.

Natalie Zett:

It's owned by.

Graham Lee:

Mattel now. So do a shout out to the Barbie movie Way to Go, so yeah, so that's where I'm at. I've been at American Girl for 26 years, there's even more.

Natalie Zett:

Do tell what we've got. All the time in the world there's.

Graham Lee:

Florence behind me. If you're wondering, is that Florence?

Natalie Zett:

Oh, I was wondering, I kept looking at that, oh she's, you know, she is stunning. That photo of that photo of Florence and Jun at the Indiana Dunes, that one where they're under a tree, oh my gosh, that thing, oh that is just, it just takes your breath away. They are beautiful together.

Graham Lee:

And they are. They're just such a happy couple and they really just clearly they have a special relationship and they were just meant to be with each other.

Natalie Zett:

Oh, my and look at the family. Now, graham, I wanted to ask you is there anything that I haven't asked you that you'd like to talk about? I mean, I try to do my homework and be Jun aware, but what would you like to tell the audience about your great uncle? He's yours, he's your family. What do you want us to know that or leave with or think about as we draw to a close?

Graham Lee:

I think for me it's always been like what is it about a person that attracts you to them? And for Jun it's just all sorts of different facets. So he's such a full lived life. You know, he was classy, he was just such an interesting guy. He went to the symphony, the Chicago Opera on the Chicago Symphony, the redlined cape who is that? And so he's just kind of like if you're going to do it, just do it right. Live life to the fullest, try things out, but take time to kind of connect with yourself. Like he created a gazing pool at his house at the Indiana Dunes and it was just lovely. But if you wanted to put your feet in there when the kids came to visit, yeah, you do that too.

Graham Lee:

That's sacred, go ahead, put your feet in there. So my advice is to just kind of use Jun as a model and just live life, try things and if we're lucky we'll have sort of a bit of impact, like Jun did.

Natalie Zett:

This is beautiful and thank you on behalf of somebody who knows what it is to take care of somebody else's legacy. It's a heavy, heavy burden in many ways, because I always want to do it right and I think, well, what would they think? But you're doing it magnificently and you're strengthening me too and encouraging me to go on too, because I think these odd journeys where we connect to our ancestors in a way, where we really, in a sense, hear them and we're affected by them and our DNA doesn't have to be DNA actually, it's just the love that was there between Florence and Jun. You have that and it gives us. I don't know. It's almost a calling in a way, and you gave your life force.

Natalie Zett:

I think you're right. Yeah, I'm a member of the SBI to take care of this, and so I appreciate you and respect you and I'm so glad to know you, and I can't wait for the audience to get dig deeper into this man. So I will.

Graham Lee:

Well, you should know that you're carrying all of your ancestry with you right. Carrying all their memories. So you're doing honor by thinking about them, writing about them and carrying their memories forward. So it's this line that's coming back and forth through time. So you're doing this, you're doing it for the past, you're doing it for the future, exactly, we're doing it for the now, right now. So kudos to you.

Natalie Zett:

Kudos to you, sir, and thank you again so much. So before we go, I wanted to say that we explored some really exciting topics and subjects and I want to give you a little bit more info, especially for our international audience. First up, if you recall, graham mentioned the Upper Peninsula, or the UP of Michigan. It's that very magical part of Michigan which is located just above the mitten. You have to look at a map and you'll know what we're talking about here. The UP is surrounded by three of the Great Lakes and it really is a nature lover's dream.

Natalie Zett:

And speaking of Michigan, graham also mentioned that he attended school briefly, at Interlochen, which is nestled near Traverse City Now. Interlochen Arts Camp was created in 1928, and then in 1962, they created the Interlochen Arts Academy, which is a year-round arts boarding school. As an aside, we also have a creative arts school here in the Twin Cities, minneapolis, st Paul, and it is called Purpitch Center for the Arts, and other states have these types of schools as well. And finally, I'm sure your ears pricked up when you heard that Graham has been working for a number of years for the American Girl Company. These 18-inch dolls of personality have been teaching history and culture since 1986. So these dolls are really important because they reflect the culture, the multiple cultures in this country and in that sense, the dolls have become more than toys. They're ambassadors and they also connect the past with the present, which is kind of a theme of this podcast, when you think about it, and it's certainly a theme for the work that Graham is doing.

Natalie Zett:

So there you have it, folks. Thanks to Graham for his time and thanks to you for joining us. Next week I plan to get back into the book. Until then, take it easy.

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