PHOT 154, History of Photography, Grossmont College, Documentary photography, Farm Security Administration, FSA, Walker Evans, American Photographs, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke White, LIFE, Gordon Parks, August Sander, Photography and Science, Robert Capa, Normandy Invasion, WW2, Magnum Photo
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Ch. 9: Documentary Expression and Popular Photography
1. Documentary Expression & Popular Photography
The Great Depression in the United States
• Longest and worst economic collapse in the history of the
modern industrial world.
• Lasted from the end of 1929 until early 40s.
• There was a decline in the production and sale of goods, and a
severe rise in unemployment.
• Businesses - banks - closed. People lost jobs, homes, savings.
• Many people depended on charity to survive.
• Many Americans spent more than they earned, farmers had to
deal with heavy debt and lower prices for their goods.
• The effects of World War 1 (1914-1918) caused economic
problems in many countries. Europe was struggling to pay war
debts.
• These problems-and the resulting weak economy-contributed
to the major crisis that started the Great Depression - the
U.S. stock market crash of 1929, which financially ruined
thousands of investors.
3. In 1935, the US government turned to various agencies for help
in fighting the Depression. In 1937, the Resettlement
Aministration became part of the Dept. of Agriculture under the
title of Farm Security Administration (FSA).
4. Right: Chief of Historical Section of FSA, Roy Stryker
The goal was to show America a desperate situation and to
gain support for President Roosevelt’s new programs:
grants, loans and resettlement money to displaced farmers.
“Was it journalism? Yes and No. Was it history? Of course.
Was it education? Very much so. If I had to sum it up, I’d
say…we (the FSA photographic corps) succeeded in doing exactly
what…we should do: we introduced Americans to America.”
-- Roy Stryker
17. Evans, 1936
Evans was concerned that his photographs not be
considered ‘propaganda’ or ‘political.’ When he
accepted the FSA assignment, he wrote a note to
himself which read “..Never make photographic
statements for the government. This is pure record,
not propaganda.”
18. “I do have a critical mind, but I am not a social protest
artist, although I have been taken as one very widely.
You’re not, and shouldn’t be, I think, trying to change the
world, saying ‘Open up your heart and b;leed for these
people.’ I would never dream of saying anything like that.
I believe in staying out of the way.” -- Evans speaking to
an audience of Harvard students.
42. Parks, Muhammad Ali, 1970
Parks’ photo essays highlighting African American
issues and leaders from a cross-section of the
community, such as Martin Luther King, Eldridge Cleaver
and Muhammad Ali, reached a broad audience
(via LIFE magazine).
44. Parks, Shaft, 1971 (introduced into the Library of Congress in 2000) , Shaft 2000
45. As WW2 approached, there was a trend of optimism -
people wanted to put troubling news aside. This attitude
would take hold in the late 1930s - early 1940s. The images
done by the FSA were opposite of this optimistic view.
“Teach the underprivileged to have fewer children and less
misery,” “Touched me to the point were I would like to quit
everything in order to help these stricken people,” “A false
impression is given of American farm conditions. Typical of
the New Deal bunk at taxpayer’s expense.” “Every
comfortable person who objects to the present Administration’s
efforts to help the poor should be made to look at these splendid
pictures until they see daylight.” -- written responses to a New
York exhibition of FSA photographs in 1938.
48. Capra, It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946 - WW2 ended in 1945
49. Margaret Bourke-White, first cover of LIFE magazine, 1936
“To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events, to watch the face of the poor and the
gestures of the proud; to see strange things; to see and take pleasure in seeing; to see and be
amazed; to see and be instructed.”
50. Margaret Bourke-White, first cover of LIFE magazine, 1936
“To see life; the see the world; to eyewitness great events; to
watch the face of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to
see strange things; to see and take pleasure in seeing; to
see and be amazed; to see and be instructed.”
- LIFE magazine, November 1936
56. August Sander, Master Upholsterer, Berlin, 1929
“Simple, natural portraits that show the subject in an
environment corresponding to their own individuality.”
61. • In 1929, the first of a proposed series of 20 volumes of
Sander’s photographs was published under the title “Face
of Our Time.”
• The Nazis banned the book in 1934, destroyed the printing
press, confiscated the books and negatives.
• They believed the photographs revealed a diversity of
physical characteristics that were contrary to Nazi
teachings about class and race.
Sander, Boxers, Cologne 1929
81. World War II- a few facts
• Global war - lasted from 1939-1945 (some conflicts in Asia started
earlier).
• Involved the vast majority of the world’s nations.
• The most widespread war in history - involved more than 100 million
people from more than 30 countries.
• “Total war” - all economic, industrial and scientific capabilities were
utilized for the “war effort.”
• Massive deaths of civilians: including the Holocaust, massive use of
airpower to bomb enemy cities, and first use of nuclear weapons
(Hiroshima, Nagasaki).
• Reulted in 50-85 million fatalities.
• Deadliest conflict in human history
• W. Eugene Smith, Battle of Saipan Island, U,.S. Marines in combat with
Japanese.
90. Chapter 9: Retake
• With the Great Depression came an age of documentary
practice in American film and photography.
• Central to photojournalism: images of the poor and efforts to
help them.
• The FSA’s straightfoward style became popular in newspapers
and magazines as did the photo essay (several images
dedicated to a single theme).
• Photography’s capability for entertainment (photo booths,
celebrity images) grew.
• During WWII, newspapers and picture magazines (LIFE) were
ready to report, protest and propagandize.
• The eye witness documentary style became strongly
associated with the Great Depression and the war years.