The Great Depression in Color

Most photos here are from 1939 - 1940. Click for larger view.












WE ARE SO ACCUSTOMED TO SEEING PHOTOGRAPHS from the Great Depression in black and white that color images are almost unimaginable. From the 1950s back, our history is largely rooted in a monochromatic world, muted variables of black and gray—at least according to our history textbooks and newspapers. Look at the Depression era photos of Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, John Vachon, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks and others—and what we are used to seeing is black and white. Even John Steinbeck’s Depression era novel “Grapes of Wrath” describe the land and situations as bleak. I guess what I am saying is, it’s hard to imagine the Dust Bowl and abject poverty in color. Until now, and the following images of Russell Lee. There is something about color images from that particular time period which brings their misery and plight a little closer to home.

Russell Lee (1903, Ottawa, Illinois - 1986, Austin, Texas) was an American photographer and photojournalist. His work was in both black and white and in color.

Some background on the FSA: Some years after the collapse of the stock market and America’s economic system in 1929, not unlike what we are going through today, The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was founded as a way to help struggling farmers rebuild. One of the offshoots of that was the photography program, which was started to document and record the poor plight of the farmer and, as they said, “to introduce America to Americans.”

Russell Lee had trained as a chemical engineer, and in the fall of 1936 became a member of the team of photographers assembled under Mr. Roy Stryker for this federally sponsored FSA documentation project. Lee is responsible for some of the iconic images produced during that period, including photographic studies of San Augustine, Texas in 1939, and Pie Town, New Mexico in 1940.

After the FSA was defunded in 1943, and after his own service in World War II, Lee continued to work under Stryker, producing public relations photographs for Standard Oil of New Jersey. Some 80,000 of those photographs have been donated by Exxon Corporation to the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

Lee moved to Austin,Texas in 1947 and became the first instructor of photography at the University of Texas in 1965. He died in 1986.

An AM repost from 3/2/09.

The Way We Were

(Above) Photographer: George Grantham Bain (1865 - 1944)
Police officer by the Brooklyn Bridge, New York, 1916.
(Above) Anonymous Photo, Black American Barbershop, 1940s
(click on images for a larger view)
(Above) Photographer: John Vachon (1914 - 1975)

Migrant couple living in one room of abandoned house on property of fruit grower, Berrien County, Michigan, 1940.
(Above) Anonymous Photo, Mountain Lion on the Street in the Rain, 1940s
(Above) Anonymous Photo, Rural Family with Nine Children, 1930s. Penned on verso: “9 children, oldest 9 years, 1 set twins, skipped 1 year. Cherokee Co.”
(Above) Photographer: John De Biase (active mid-2oth century)
Black American Children Workers, 1940s
Penned on verso: These are some of the kids whose parents’ strike is being fought by imported strikebreakers. Wages for Starkey workers ranged from 15¢ an hour for 7-year olds to 45¢ for adults.”

ONE OF THE THINGS OLD PHOTOGRAPHS DO FOR ME is to make me stop and re-examine where we are and how far we have come. At the same time, it makes me rethink just how far we need to go. Here is a remarkable set of photographs that speak to various aspects of our American way of life.

These photographs are all for sale on eBay, the selections of James Lamkin—a person who has helped shape and define this entire “vernacular” phenomenon we see today. James was finding and selling snapshots before most. Most importantly—James has an eye like few of his contemporaries. It’s unique. While many sell within the so-called “odd” snapshot genre—James will select an anonymous photo because of it’s sublime magnificence. As far as the history of photography goes, James is able to make these incredible connections to the history of photography.

You never know what you are going to find on his eBay site: this week he has a heart-wrenching, incredible Depression era FSA photograph by WPA photographer John Vachon, whose work is in the Archives of the Library of Congress. Next to that, for comparison— an anonymous snapshot of a family with 9 children from the same time period, a photograph with equal power.

Check out his site for a chance to own a piece of photo history.