The Legacy Of Documentary Photography

In our society today, how would one define an influential collection of photos? For better or worse, the first example that comes into my mind is Kim Kardashians published book of 200 “selfies”: Selfish. In the past decade, the ability to take a photo is available to anyone who owns practically any form of technology. Computers now have webcams, phones have multiple cameras, there are small video cameras you can attach to your hat, and even pocket sized Polaroid cameras. We have the ability to capture anything, so how can a print still influence us in today’s culture? The legacy of documentary photography has been evolving for decades. In 1933, the Farm Society Administration devised a new plan to raise money for rural America: photograph the
people who need money and feed them into the public sphere. After the dust bowl, rural America was suffering great debt. With the banks in turmoil, donations from wealthy citizens were required in order to restore the state of the land. The FSA photography project was conceived to provide infertile rural America with money, instead, the project changed the way the American eye viewed the artistic value of a photograph. During the Roosevelt administration, a package of reforms were passed in order to stimulate the fallen economy, known as the “New Deal”.
President Roosevelt sought to increase the range of governmental activities to include industry, agriculture, housing, finance and labor. The first goal of this legislation was to employ workers who had lost their job due to the collapse of the stock market. Agencies formed by the government included the National Recovery Administration, Works Progress Administration and many others. The United States Supreme Court determined many of these legislations to be unconstitutional on the grounds that they interfere too heavily on the economic market of America. In 1935, a “Second New Deal” was constructed to appeal to the Supreme Court. The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was created in order to provide support for the poverty in rural areas of America. Their goal was to improve farming techniques to prevent natural disasters such as the Dustbowl from reoccurring. The FSA was most well known for their Information Division’s documentation of rural
America. Heading the Information Division was government employee Roy Emerson Stryker. One of Stryker’s favorite pastimes was photography. He established a documentary photography project in order to provide the nation with images of rural America and the efforts of the government to provide aid. General themes and areas were assigned to a changing team of photographers. Eleven photographers set off to convince the public of necessary government spending. Each photographer came from a different background and were permitted to use their creativity. Stryker sent a list of suggestions to each artist including “attending church, regional headlines, the relationship between time and the job, the baseball diamond, production of foods, general farming, signs, schools, old tire piles” and many more precise examples. When reflecting on this project Stryker wrote “I am only interested in pictures. And what pictures they were. I had no idea what was going to happen. I expected competence. I did not expect to be shocked at what began to come across my desk.” Initially, three photographers embarked on this journey, Carl Mydans, Walker Evans and Ben Shahn. Walker Evans was inspired by the French photographer Eugene Atget. His photographs aired to the side of beautiful simplicity. Evans worked for the historical unit of the FSA from 1935 to 1937. He was located primarily in the South, and gave Evans the opportunity to travel for his art. Stryker recalled one of his early images, titled “Bethlehem graveyard and steel mill”.
Months after we’d released that picture a woman came in and asked for it. We gave it to her and when I asked her what she wanted it for, she said, “I want to give it to my brother who’s a steel executive. I want to write on it ‘your cemeteries, your streets, your buildings, your steel mills. But our souls, God damn you.’

This quote represents how early these images began influence society. Having an image to refer to allowed people were able to further realize the damage done on the country. Evans influential photographs landed him a job at Time, Inc, and eventually taught at the School of Art and Architecture of Yale University. His work mainly provided examples of landscapes and objects, while other photographers for the FSA strived to produce careful examples of poverty. Russell Lee was hired for the FSA in 1935. His photographs from this period “remain some of the most famous documentary photographs ever taken.” Lee travelled across the country documenting farmers, pear pickers, factory workers, seamstresses and even oyster fisherman. Shots were taken with the desire to promote social justice by “introducing America to Americans”. Lee’s desire to document the human condition and working life made him an integral part of the photography project. Stryker felt that the photographer’s attitude towards their subject was integral for the viewer to feel as though they are worthy of governmental support. “Russell took [them] with every degree of commiseration and respect,” wrote Stryker. While viewing a picture of a woman’s hands

Walker Evans. Bethlehem graveyard and steel mill. Pennsylvania. November 1935. Library of Congree Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Russell Lee. Hands of Mrs. Andrew Ostermeyer, wife of a homesteader, Woodbury County, Iowa. December 1936 he felt as though “He wanted to say, ‘these are the hands of labor,’ and he said it eloquently… there’s honesty there, a compassion, and a natural regard for individual dignity.” Lee’s images stuck into the minds of Americans. These images stood for the lives of the working class across America. He strived to photograph people are they were in their everyday lives and not to dramatize them. Throughout Lee’s career, the goals of the FSA remained within his work: he presented the conditions of the time in order to provide cultural evidence. Dorothea Lange took some of the most recognizable photographs throughout the FSA photography project.
She is recognized most notably for her collection of images of the “migrant mother”. While she was traveling through California she found a Farmer’s camp where a mother had recently sold the tires off of her car so she could provide food for her family. Lange took many images of this family, mostly with the mother looking outwards and her two boys hiding their faces behind her. Critics of Lange often say that her female sensibility is what allows the sentiments and instincts of care to shine through. Most of her photographs were portraits, interested with internal emotion and disposition. Lange was referred to by her boss, Stryker, as “not only as a mother but as a matriarch”. In 1941 Lange received the Guggenheim fellowship award, one of the first given to a photographer, to document “the American social scene.” While most of the negatives produced from this period on have been lost, she left a legacy of documentary photography that could not be replaced. Lange’s inclination towards sentimental images coincided with the FSA’s desire to honor the impoverished and create a form of political
communication.