Francis Stewart

Francis L. Stewart (22 July 1909 — 23 August 1992) was an American photographer who over a twelve-month period documented the removal, assembly, incarceration, and resettlement of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Stewart was born on July 22, 1909, in Mesa, Arizona. He studied at Compton Junior College as well as various art schools before he received his diploma in 1929 in Commercial Art from Frank Wiggins Art School (now Los Angeles Trade-Technical College).

After doing commercial art for a variety of businesses during the Great Depression years, Stewart joined the staff of the San Francisco Call Bulletin in 1935. He served as a head photographer there and also ran the photo and art departments.

In May 1942, Stewart began working for the War Relocation Authority—the body responsible for the internment and migration of Japanese Americans during World War II. His title was "Information Specialist" and his primary duty was to "take and handle WRA photos." In hiring him, a WRA bureaucrat mentioned in a letter that Stewart was a skilled photographer whose work was comparable to that of photojournalist Dorothea Lange. 

Most of Stewart's photography work from 1942-1943 focused on Japanese Americans and Japanese in ten permanent camps, including Tule Lake, Poston, Topaz, Gila River, and Minidoka. About 1,000 of its negatives are managed in the National Archives and Records Administration archive, now in public domain. 

Stewart resigned from WRA on May 29, 1943, writing only that his resignation was for "personal reasons." He continued his career in photography after the war, starting a number of businesses in the Bay Area. One such business was a commercial photography studio named Stewart and Skelton Studios, which he co-owned with Robert "Bob" Skelton.

Stewart died on August 23, 1992, in Willits, California, at the age of 83.