Background
Otto Hagel was born on March 12, 1909 in Fellbach, Germany.
Otto Hagel was born on March 12, 1909 in Fellbach, Germany.
In the early 1930s, Otto Hagel was a member of the San Francisco Film and Photo League. He and his wife Hansel Mieth were part of the school of socially conscious documentary photo-journalists.
Otto Hagel and Hansel Mieth photographed the inside of the Heart Mountain Japanese American internment camp for Life magazine in 1943, but the photographs were not published by Life, In the 1950s, the couple was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
He and Meith bought a working ranch in Santa Rosa, California in 1941, and raised chickens for some years. A book with photographs from the period was published, as well as a pictorial in Life called "The Simple Life." During World War II, Hagel, still a German national, was under detention at home.
A member of ASMP. In the early 1930s, Hagel was a member of the San Francisco Film and Photo League.