1930s, FSA, Journalism

NOT SO BLACK AND WHITE

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Girl at Gee’s Bend, Alabama (April 1937)
by Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congrss

Text by Bruce Berman, Site Editor

“You see the girl — that’s effect one. You see the ad [the blond woman] — that’s effect two. But the third effect is when you see both images together and recognize the irony.” — Arthur Rothstein on the photo

It’s a beautiful photograph, no doubt. Rule of thirds composition. Great light creating great texture. Juxtaposition of the printed rumpled paper against the real person, Black tones versus light tones, i.e., contrast. The slightly diagonal lines and the pattern they create. Textbook rules of composition. But, of overwhelming importance, of course, the implied comment and intention of the photograph.
Arthur Rothstein understood and believed in the power of photography to make social commentary. Working for the United States government, Rothstein photographed Artelia Bendolph in Alabama, to illustrate the effects of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenancy Act of 1937.
Of course -and this is NEVER supposed to be asked when discussing the iconic FSA project- should someone working for the government EVER be allowed to use their words or photographs to “make social commentary?” Isn’t that the realm of commentators in the news industry, i.e., non tax paid?


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America, Culture, Documentary Photography, Ethics, FSA, Photography That Matters, Photojournalism, The Great Depression

ROTHSTEIN: THE TRUTH ABOUT SKULLS

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Text by Bruce Berman

Arthur Rothstein was hand picked by Director Roy Stryker to be one of the original photographers for the Historical Section of the Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration/FSA). The unit was birthed to be an explainer for agriculture projects that benefited the agrarian sectors of Depression-ravish America. Rothstein’s “eye” was excellent, his technical skills first rate and he always came back with the goods and then some.

Why doesn’t he get the attention of Dorothea Lange or Walker Evans, or, even, Russell Lee?

Was it the cow skull “controversy?”

Perhaps.

For me this “controversy has always seemed,well… overblown. He moved the skull several times and then, finally, settled on the one we all know.

South Dakota Badlands, 1936, Photo by Arthur Rothstein for the FSA

Was he (visually) lying?

I think not.

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America, California, Culture, Displaced Communities, Documentary Photography, Foreclosure, FSA, social displacement, Texas, The Great Depression

NO NET AMERICA

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Migrant family on highway, California, 1937

Photograph by Dorothea Lange

Extended Caption: California at Last: Example of self-resettlement in California. Oklahoma farm family on highway between Blythe and Indio. Forced by the drought of 1936 to abandon their farm, they set out with their children to drive to California. Picking cotton in Arizona for a day or two at a time gave them enough for food and gas to continue. On this day, they were within a day’s travel of their destination, Bakersfield, California. Their car had broken down en route and was abandoned.

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America, California, Culture, Displaced Communities, Documentary Photography, FSA, History, Journeys, Roadside Attractions, social displacement, The Great Depression

LANGE AND HER TRANSCRIBED TEXT

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Dorothea Lange and the Walkers “Toward Los Angeles.”California,

March 1937 by Dorothea Lange for FSA

 “Next Time Try The Train– Relax.”  

Lange captioned this with the walkers own words: “Well– give me the fare and I will, buddy.  We ain’t walkin’ for our health…”

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America, Documentary Photography, FSA, Photojournalism, The Americas, The Human Condition, Uncategorized

IMAGES FROM THE FSA ROAD

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Okies on the road
Okies on U.S. 66, March 1937
by Dorothea Lange

 

Text  by Bruce Berman

All Commentary (definitely) Subjective

 

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) started out to show government programs to the taxpaying public, to gain support for the New Deal agriculture initiatives of the Resettlement Administration (RA). From mid 1936 to late 1939 it did that but in the doing it found itself -pushed by the hand of its Director, Roy Stryker- documenting “American Life.”

The beginning of the FSA concentrated on the devastation of people and land of the agrarian sector but, as time went on, it broadened its image-making to include the way all Americans lived and worked.

The America of the 1930s is still out there, in the backlands, far away from the eyes of urban America. In fact, if one only learned of the interior of America from the mainstream media (all situated in urban America) one could not know that the America of the 1930s FSA is ongoing, alive, and functioning.

These images are a sample from the FSA road, a road I travel often, now, in 2015, seventy nine years after the creation of the FSA and their portrayal of America.

Then as now it is typified by open space, graphic simplicity and, agriculture and a sense of order now uncommon in urban America.

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