EVERY PICTURE
TELLS A STORY
Documentary Photography and the Great
Depression
From 1935 to 1943, photographers working for the federal government produced the most enduring
images of the Great Depression. Beginning under the auspices of the Resettlement Administration in 1935 and
then the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1937, a group that over time included about twenty men and
women worked under the supervision of Roy E. Stryker to create a pictorial record of the impact of hard times on
the nation, primarily on rural Americans. This project, as photography historian Alan Trachtenberg has noted,
"was perhaps the greatest collective effort . . . in the history of photography to mobilize resources to create a
cumulative picture of a place and time." Many of the eighty thousand photographs taken by the so-called FSA
photographers were distributed by the agency to newspapers and magazines to build support for the New Deal's
rural programs. As FSA photographer Arthur Rothstein later recalled, "It was our job to document the problems of
the Depression so that we could justify the New Deal legislation that was designed to alleviate them."
These publicly displayed FSA images had a profound impact on contemporary viewers. "These pictures
impress one as real life of a vast section of the American people," commented one viewer of FSA photos
exhibited in an April 1938 show called "How American People Live." It was a remark that summarized the
overwhelming public reaction. Three generations after their creation, the FSA photographs remain the basis for
Americans' visual understanding of the Great Depression and have also set a standard for subsequent
documentary photography. Photographs such as Dorothea Lange's 1936 portrait "Migrant Mother" and Walker
Evans's 1936 series depicting the faces and homes of Alabama sharecroppers have become icons of the era,
pictures that in their directness and simplicity record the conditions of poverty while also celebrating the persistent
human spirit of survival in even the most difficult of circumstances.
Unlike similar symbols rendered in paint or prose, however, photographs seem to convey reality without
the mediation of an artist or interpreter. In photographs, Trachtenberg has observed, we seem to see "the world
itself," people, rocks, fences, clouds. No teller tells (or writes) these stories; they happen by themselves." But
photographs do not capture "objective" reality. Like other historical sources, they are interpretations, versions of
reality that document facts but also express ideas and opinions and tell stories. As the creators of images
photographers are always mindful that their pictures are to be viewed by an audience. They choose particular
perspectives and poses to convey messages and use the frame of the photograph to focus attention on certain
information while also cutting out "extraneous" material. The process of creation continues later in the darkroom,
where the photographer selects particular shots from a series of exposures, often cropping the original image to
further enhance certain elements.
That photographs are interpretations does not diminish their value as historical evidence. Instead, like
other historical sources, they need to be examined critically. The circumstances of their creation should be
considered: Where was the photographer standing? Why did the photographer choose a particular pose or shoot
from a particular angle? What did the photographer include in and exclude from the picture frame and why? Was
the original picture later cropped and, if so, why? Was the published picture accompanied by an explanatory
caption and, if so, what influence did it have on viewers' understanding of the photograph? What audience was
the photographer addressing when he or she took the photograph? Aided by such information, the stories that
photographs tell provide us with insights into the society in which they were created.
The FSA's vast pictorial undertaking, as Roy Stryker later recalled, endeavored to introduce "Americans to
America." This goal had a specific audience in mind: middle-class Americans who lived in cities far from the
locales depicted in the photographs and who comprised the vast majority of the readers of the newspapers and
magazines in which the FSA pictures were reproduced. FSA photographs presented their rural subjects in ways
that middle-class viewers could recognize and sympathize with. Attempting to overcome fears about the disorder
provoked by the depression, photographers chose poses and points of view that emphasized their subjects'
dignity, orderliness, and responsibility in the face of hardship. They did not intend their photographs to deceive.
Rather, as historian James Curtis has written, "project director Roy Stryker and his staff created a powerful
portrait that communicated rural suffering in terms that an urban middle class would readily understand."
One of the most enduring images of the Depression is a portrait of thirty-two-year-old Florence Thompson
and her children sheltered under a tent in a camp of migrant pea pickers near Nipomo, California. Taken by FSA
photographer Dorothea Lange, "Migrant Mother" was the last of a series of six photographs that she shot on a
rainy afternoon in March 1936. Below are other pictures she took before she decided on this one. Why do you
think she chose the cropped picture with the children? Do you think it is more effective to the middle class
audience she was trying to inform? Is the story missing anything by not showing the living arrangements?
John Steinbeck uses Of Mice and Men to highlight the natural struggles of human beings;
especially the migrant worker in the 1930’s. Today we are going to explore the photography of
Walker Evans and the poetry of Cynthia Ryland who also use their art forms to both show and
tell the plight of the real people struggling in America during this time period.
Part I:
The goal of today is to select a photo from the 1930’s and write a poem
using strong diction. (style & learning through mixed media)
1) Look through a photography websites documenting the American suffering of the migrant
workers during the Depression. Reviewing a Text: Something Permanent by Walker Evans
and Cynthia Rylant or the three other websites listed. -----***http://books.google.com/books?id=rH6C9VzM4bYC&dq=something+permanent&prints
ec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=d_rEYmbdVJ&sig=QyYJj116TocLrqrimA_FLa5Kf0&hl=en&ei=OxT8SuiPNo7AngeXlciWBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=re
sult&resnum=2&ved=0CAwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false
***http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/depression/photoessay.htm or
***http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fachap03.html.
***http://www.masters-of-fine-artphotography.com/02/artphotogallery/photographers/walker_evans_44.html
2) Copy and save your picture to a PowerPoint slide or Google Slide
3) Once you have selected your photo, consider the following questions to brainstorm
your poetry details:
a. List all the concrete details you see in this photo? (things you can see, taste,
touch, hear, feel)
b. What is this person’s situation/story? Do you want to tell a narrative poem
about it?
c. What does he/she think about surroundings? Family? Objects?
Lyrical/narrative would both be appropriate here.
d. Why is this person in this location?
e. What does this person want out of life?
f. What conflict is this person struggling with? (external/internal---both)
g. What is the theme of this picture?
h. What would he/she/it say?
i. Would a lyrical or narrative poem be more appropriate?
j. Choose diction that creates an impact on your audience.
4) Now WRITE a poem to “Show” this person’s conflict/plight/struggle (Naturalism):
write poem in a text box next to picture or overlapping picture.
5) How you will be graded:
a. Diction choice create a cumulative impact (20 points)
b. Shows the struggle(naturalism) through a narrative/lyric poem (5 points)
Poem #1 on Naturalism is 25 points
Here is an example from Cynthia Rylant’s book:
Traveler
He swore to God he’d get out
by sixteen, seventeen at the latest,
and when twenty hit,
and him still there,
it hit hard,
and from then on he carried
this heavy anchor inside
that said
you ain’t going nowhere, son,
so just get your ass
on home.
Homework: Print the picture and draft of the poem and finish writing your poem for homework.
Part II: Making the connection/Synthesis: LG
(diction/medium/analysis/synthesis/presentation)
The goal of today is to select a photo from today connecting to the themes of naturalism,
discrimination, friendship, The American Dream, isolation, or one of your choice upon consult
with me----- and write a poem in response to it.
1) Find a picture on the Internet or one you have taken or nuanced art work that depicts a
universal theme found in OMAM and see if you can choose a “4-level” image---(nuanced
and inference)
2) Copy and save your picture/image to a PowerPoint slide or Google Slide
3) In addition, add music to add aesthetic and tonal quality to this poem
4) Go back to questions on the first slide (if it was helpful) or try a different angle for this poem
and start to brainstorm ideas for this poem.
5) Now write a poem to “Show” this theme in new, diction-packed verse
a. Diction choice create a cumulative impact (20 points--Writing)
b. Synthesizes a visual and/or musical medium to the poem (10 pointsWriting)
c. Write 2 extended responses that analyze the impact of diction (paragraph 1)
and the visual and musical choice for impact through a different medium
(paragraph 2) (20 points--Writing)
d. Present both (depression and postmodern theme) ;;;poems to class—
presentation will include a dramatic reading of both poems and the analysis of
the “postmodern” poem (20 points-Speaking and Listening)
Total = 70 points
Homework: continue fine-tuning your poem, medium, analysis & synthesis.