History generally presents itself to the future in visual terms that signify the distance between the two points of time from its creation and its re-purposing and its re-examination. The fallacy in photographic terms of historical representation and its distribution of intent are intertwined between reason and audience over the passing of linear […]
By Merrill Schleier. Presented at Southwest Labor Studies Conference, March 14, 1986 Dorothea Lange’s images of the Depression’s unemployed and disenfranchised victims have long been acknowledged both for their power to prompt government action and their compassion. Lange was one of several photographers employed by the Resettlement Administration, which was later subsumed under the Farm […]
Throughout his career, Walker Evans’s goal remained unchanged: to produce photographs that are both evocative and mysterious and also an accurate record of the day. Evans came from a tradition of American photographers interested in identifying the unique character of everyday American life. Hear Evans talk about his work during the Depression, his collaboration with […]
Irrigator, who, with 595 persons of Japanese ancestry, is leaving this rural district this morning for an assembly center under Civilian Exclusion Order Number 34. Centerville, CA, 1942, Dorothea Lange Text by Caleb Foote, Photographs by Dorothea Lange The Tyranny of a Word Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the San Francisco Chronicle said of the persons of […]
“While Evans gave much effort to photographing poor people, their houses, rooms and the things they made, it is far from clear that poverty is the point of his best pictures.” By Leo Rubinfien, originally published in Art in America, December 2000 A traveling retrospective (2000) prompts the author to recall the austere formalist–and […]
Dorothea Lange’s stirring images of migrant farmers and the unemployed have become universally recognized symbols of the Great Depression. Later photographs documenting the internment of Japanese Americans and her travels throughout the world extended her body of work. Watch the video to hear Lange discuss how she began her documentary projects for the Farm Security […]
Negro bus-boy dishwashers, Investment Pharmacy, Washington, July, 1941 Interview with Jack and Irene Delano Conducted by Richard K. Doud in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, June 12, 1965. RICHARD DOUD: If you don’t mind, I think I’ll ask you about your background, what you were doing leading up to your association with the Farm Security Administration, and […]
“I think that most people feel, or felt at that time, that it was a man’s field and that a man would just automatically do a better job and be better equipped to do it.” By Richard Doud, Oral history interview with Marion Post Wolcott, January 18, 1965 RICHARD DOUD: This is an interview […]
Hispanic boy. Trampas, New Mexico. 1943 Interview with John Collier Conducted by Richard K. Doud at John Collier’s home in Sausalito, California. January 18, 1965 RICHARD DOUD: This is an interview with John Collier at his home on Muir Beach, Sausalito, California; January 18, 1965. The interviewer is Richard K. Doud. JOHN COLLIER: I got […]
Interview with Ben Shahn Conducted by Forrest Selvig at the Artist’s home in Roosevelt, New Jersey. September 27, 1968 FORREST SELVIG: This is an interview with Ben Shahn in his house in Roosevelt, New Jersey, and the date is the 27th of September, 1968. The interviewer is Forrest Selvig. BEN SHAHN: Well, you asked me about […]
By F. Jack Hurley Originally published in IMAGE: Journal of Photography and Motion Pictures of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, September, 1973 To try to capsulize the work of Russell Lee into a short article is an essentially impossible task. The man has been active in the field of photography […]
Edited transcript of a lengthy 1972 interview with Stryker. Conducted by Robert J. Doherty, F. Jack Hurley, Jay M. Kloner, and Carl G. Ryant. R: Could you tell us just briefly about your background before you went to Washington in the thirties? Now, let’s see. After I got out of high school, I started to […]