During the Great Depression, F.D.R. enlisted American photographers to document life in the United States. The Library of Congress provides amazing access to the black-and-white photographs of the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) collection. These images show Americans at home, at work, and at play. The emphasis was on rural and small-town life and the adverse effects of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and increasing farm mechanization. In the latter years, the project documented America's mobilization for WWII. Here, the photograph reflects the elements of painting, where the primary focus is on depiction of a person, a place, an event, etc.
Documenting America Photographer Series: Ben Shahn, John Vachon, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Gordan Parks, Arthur Rothstein.
Use the link to view their collections: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/documentingamerica.html
Select 2 photographers and for each, examine 3 pictures from a series discuss the following:
a) the subject
b) the occasion/situation
c) the purpose/message
d) how the picture "speaks" to the audience.
e) what do the choices made show about the photographer's point of view of the situation
The first three pictures I looked at were by Dorothea Lange. One was a picture of an 18 year old migrant girl with her young child sitting on the ground in front of her. The girls had moved west for work so she was very poor. There is a tent right behind her which is most likely where she lived. The woman and her child are both wearing very tattered clothes and are dirty. The second picture I looked at was of a Mexican migrant workers home. The house was barely a house. It had no widows or a door. There was also a man standing next to the house holding a baby. The house was probably the best he could afford for his family, or he may have built it. The third picture by Dorothea Lange was of a man sitting on the ground in a line with other men. His face looks upset. His clothes are old and he is dirty. The next three pictures I looked at were by Arthur Rothstein of the Migratory Labor Camp. The first picture was of a group of men sitting at a table playing checkers. For the migrant workers there was not much do and they didn’t own a whole lot. The next picture was of a baseball game. Lots of people gathered around at the camp to watch some guys play a game. This would have been a great moment for migrant workers to gather together and take their minds of what was going on in America at the time. The last picture was of a bunch of people dancing in a big room. This would be another time where people would be able to take their mind off of any trouble. In all of these pictures Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein they were showing what life looked like for migrant workers. All of them were very poor with inadequate housing and clothes. Somehow they found ways to entertain themselves and take themselves away from any depression or troubling times. The pictures can tell the audience that life was really rough for those people back then. We need to be thankful for the life we are able to live now.
ReplyDeleteI chose three pictures from the collection Cotton Pickers by Ben Shahn that shows the hard lives of cotton farmers. The pictures show a large pile of cotton on the porch, many workers waiting to go to work in the morning, and people picking cotton in the fields. The purpose of these images are to show the difficult lives of cotton pickers during the Great Depression. The workers waiting and in the fields must do backbreaking labor all day in the sun, and from the picture of the large pile of cotton, they cannot sell the crop. These images speak to the audience because they give insight into the lives of poor farmers and workers who earn little for the labor they do. The photographer must have chosen this point of view to draw sympathy for the difficult situation the subjects of the pictures are in during economic hardship.
ReplyDeleteThe second set of three pictures I chose is from Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Workers collection. The pictures show a woman working in a straw house, a refugee tent camp near a scrap pile, and straw houses near a ditch where migrant workers to lived. These pictures come from the time of the Dust Bowl drought in the western United States. The purpose of this collection is to look at the extreme poverty people were forced to live in after their farms were destroyed and they moved to the west coast looking for work. The pictures speak to the audience by creating feelings of sadness for the degrading conditions that they are forced to live in as a result of the drought. The photographer’s point of view on the poverty of these people is evident through the choice to take pictures showing their straw hut homes.
Walker Evans
ReplyDeleteThe subject of his photos were everyday life on the streets and the city apartments. He took photos of people in cars, and just walking down the street. He wanted to reveal everyday people and the expressions on their face that they make while they are walking around. Also he captured restaurants and vendors that are around the city. The occasion of his series of photos are that capture the effects of the Great Depression that it had on people. He took his photos around the 1930’s which was during the time period of the society being run down and on the streets. The purpose and message of these photos are to reveal the society, architecture, and the way people lived during this time. Evans proves by his photos that the Great Depression affected people’s lives economically. These pictures showed where most families lived and where they ate and went to church. The photos speak to the audience by teaching them about the history during the Great Depression without having to read about it. The audience can learn how society has changed since then and elements that the history of our country went through in order to get to this point. The photos show that Evans was aware of how people were living but he wanted other people to be able to witness it too. This shows that his point of view was neutral because he knew what was going on and didn’t want it to be hidden. He wanted to expose to the regular day of regular people during that time and he had an optimistic view that it could be fixed.
Ben Shahn
His photos are about how the other end of society, being the African Americans and how they were affected during this time period. His pictures were focused on the cotton pickers, the content of their jobs, and how they had different parts of the day that were focused on a certain responsibility. The occasion and situation of these photos was during the Great Depression when the African American’s were no longer slaves but they took place in sharecropping which was a way where they could gain some money and some products. The African Americans lived in poverty after the Civil War because they had a hard time finding jobs. The message that the photos by Shahn were portraying was how the African American’s lives were still hard even though they weren't slaves anymore. It also was a way for people around the country to realize that everyone was being affected by the economic downfall. These photos spoke to the audience because it is informing of how the African Americans were making a living during this time. Shahn uses these photos to inform people of the type of jobs that these people had to do in one day and the expression of fatigue on their face. The choices of these photos reveal that Shahn was wanting to show people during this time that every part of society was being affected. His choice of taking photos of these cotton pickers might reveal that he felt that the treatment was unfair and the situation should get more attention.
The first three pictures that I looked at were taken by Ben Shahn. He titles the collection of photos “Cotton Pickers” because they were pictures of workers who picked cotton and the cotton itself. The occasion of these photos was that Shahn wanted to show the conditions and the individuals behind the picking of the cotton. The Great Depression and Dust Bowl greatly affected these people’s lives, which is what the photographer was told to capture. He wanted to put faces to this laborious job in order to show people who took them for granted that they were humans too. These pictures speak to the audience by making them sympathetic for the rough conditions that these people were forced to live and work in every day. By taking pictures of these sad people in their daily routines, the purpose is conveyed to the audience. The viewer can tell that the photographer’s point of view of these people was that he was sympathetic because he wanted to show how horrible their living conditions were, instead of making them seem happier than they were.
ReplyDeleteThe second set of pictures that I saw were from Gordon Parks, an African American photographer. The subjects of these photos were Ella Watson and her adopted daughter in their home. The occasion of these photos was that Parks wanted to show the other African American people in Washington D.C. since he had also experienced the discrimination there. The purpose of him taking these pictures is to show what prejudice is really like for Ella Watson being a charwoman. The pictures speak to the viewer because they show life from the point of view of these women. They allow the audience to relate to them because they get a glimpse into their lives. The choices of showing average things in these women’s lives show that the photographer relates to these women and wants the viewer to also.
I chose the pictures by Ben Shahn to cover first. I picked the group of photos titles Sunday on the porch, Mother and child, and After church. The subject of these three pictures is how people spend their sundays. It shows that they went to church and spent time relaxing. Sunday is different from every other day because there is no work. This makes every Sunday somewhat of a special occasion. The message sent through the picture titled After church is that people had a large sense of community and family. This is shown by how large numbers of people gather and talk after church as well as through the picture of the mother holding her child. These pictures speak to the audience by showing them that even life may have been hard for these people they still found time interact with each other and be a community. The photographer seems to have a positive point of view because he is taking pictures of the good parts of this society.
ReplyDeleteThe second collection of pictures I looked at is by Arthur Rothstein. I looked at three pictures that depict people from the labor camp performing a play, people watching the play, and the women's club. The situations in these labor camps were less than ideal for those that stayed at them. The purpose of these three pictures is to show that there is still joy and fun in a place that may be disliked. Throughout the play and people watching it happiness is shown at the camp. The women's club also shows equality and opportunity for all. This picture shows the audience that these camps aren’t all that bad. These pictures show that the photographer's point of view wasn’t totally negative because he added in some of the good parts of the camp as well as the bad ones, creating a fairly neutral point of view.
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ReplyDeleteThe first photographer I chose to examine was Walker Evans. The three pictures I have chosen to discuss are “Apartment Building, 311 East Sixty-First”, “Children on East Sixty-First Street”, and “Restaurant and bakery, 1113 and 1115 First Avenue”. The first photo subject is the apartment building that is clearly displayed in this picture, and the occasion of the photo is everyday life in impoverished New York. The message that this photo displays is the tight impoverished nature of New York. The picture speaks to the audience in the way it shows the horrible conditions the impoverished New Yorkers have to face. The point of view is used in order to make the poverty in New York seem like an average thing to see. The second photo’s subject is the children, and the situation is that the children are going about their day. The message that this photo displays in the tight quarters that New Yorkers have to deal with in an impoverished city. The picture speaks to the audience though the way it uses a family struggling in tight quarters; this evokes feelings of pity for the poor family. This point of view conveys that the author is trying to show the struggles of raising a family in New York. The third photo’s subject is the bakery and restaurant in the background, and the occasion is during the middle of the day. The message behind this photo is to convey what a normal day looks like in New York. The picture speaks to the audience through the simplistic nature of this picture that covey’s what everyday life is like for New Yorkers. The point of view is used to display what everyday life was like for people in the city.
ReplyDeleteThe last photographer I chose was Ben Shahn. The three pictures I have chosen are “Cotton Picker, Arkansas”, “Picking Cotton on Alexander plantation, Pulaski County, Arkansas”, and “Sharecropper at home on Sunday”. The first photo’s subject is the old man pictured in the middle, and the occasion is during an average work week. The message that this picture displays is the hard conditions the senior citizens had to face. This picture speaks to the audience in the way that you feel pity for the sweet old man who has to go out and work the cotton fields all day. This point of view shows the idea that the author feels like the treatment of senior citizens is unjust. The next photo’s subject is the workers picking cotton, and the occasion is while the cotton pickers are working the fields. the message of this photo is the backbreaking labor that the cotton pickers had to go through all day long. This speaks to the viewer through the way it shows the workers having to do hard labor all day; this in turn creates a sense of pity. the point of view used also shows the way that the author feels that the working conditions are unfair towards the honest men and women who work the fields. The last photo’s subject is the man and his family in the background, and the occasion is on a Sunday. The message of this photo is that it is trying to show how the cotton workers lived outside of the fields. The picture speaks to the viewer through the way it makes the workers seem like everyday people; this makes the viewer feel like the workers are mistreated. The point of view used expresses the way the author feels like that these workers are human and should be treated as such.
ReplyDeleteWalker Evans
The three pictures from Evans that I looked at had the subject of rough city life. His photographs show that being poor in a city is not very rewarding. His picture show crowded houses that are overflowing with people. He also shows rough city life in the fact that people are moving because city life is too expensive. The purpose of these photos is to show that city life is not the best position during the Great Depression, it shows the struggle. The picture speaks to the audience in a way that is moving. It is moving because extreme poverty is sad. The choices made in the picture show that the photographer’s point of view is an innocent one that doesn’t truly know what’s going on.
Dorthea Lange
The first three picture I saw taken by Dorthea Lange show the struggle of migrant workers looking for work during the Great Depression. The situation of these photos show the struggle of finding work during a major depression. The purpose of these photos is to show the struggle of finding work. The picture speaks to the audience by displaying life in a terrible way. The point of view of the photographer shows that not everyone was struggling, but most were.
Ben Shahn
ReplyDeleteThe three pictures I looked at by Ben Shahn are photographs called “Cotton Pickers.” The title speaks for itself because the pictures are of African American people that picked cotton in the cotton fields. The photographs show the harsh lifestyle of cotton picking and the grieving manual labor that it entails. The African American cotton pickers are of old age and it shows how the hard labor lifestyle has taken a toll on their bodies. The photographs are to show other individual’s that nobody wants to live the lifestyle of a cotton picker because of the poor treatment and dirty living. The purposes of these pictures are to show others the crucial living and poor health conditions the cotton pickers went through. The pictures speak to the audience by the facial expressions of the workers. They don’t have smiles on their faces because they are eager to work. Ben Shahn’s views of the situation based on his photograph’s show that he’s keen to show the public the inhuman lifestyle of cotton pickers and to promote change.
Arthur Rothstein
The three pictures I looked at by Arthur Rothstein are photographs called “Tenant Famers.” The pictures are of the cabin living conditions for tenant farmers in Alabama. Their houses are made of mud and stakes, which they hew themselves. By the looks of the cabins, they are unstable and full of red flags, such as their uncleanliness and the unsafe build. The people inhabiting the tenant cabins are victims of slavery. The tenants Arthur photographed were called Pettway, in which the white Pettways had sold the plantation in the early years, and hundreds of blacks had since rented or sharecropped the land from its following owners. The purpose of these pictures is to give a visual to the public of the living conditions of the tenant farmers and the former victims of slavery in Alabama. It speaks to the public because of their persistence to survive with what the land gives them and to send a message to society that their lives could be worse. The views of Arthur are shown through his pictures by his curiousness and insightful way he captures the tenant farmers. He has the farmers go about their daily routine and doesn’t create a false lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteDorothea Lange
The subject of these photographs of Langes were focused on migrant workers. The situations in these photos are all similar but have different actions in each of them. In the first picture there is just a young migrant women sitting looking sad and beat down, in the second picture it shows how the workers had to work and it looked like tough work, the last photo was of the migrant workers taking showers in the hot springs which shows that they had limited resources for their personal belongings and things in the personal matter. These have meanings to make people be able to feel how the migrant workers did when they were doing what they did. The pictures speak to the audience with the center points of attention and it makes the audience really focus on the main points. The choices made in the pictures show that the photographer had a sympathetic point of view and really felt how the migrant working business worked and she must have witnessed much of it because she was there to take pictures, she had a great point of view in her photographs.
Walker Evans
The subject of these pictures of Walker Evans were mainly focused on the daily life in the city and mainly on just one block of New York City to show how many people live there. The situation in each picture are relatively the same there really is no difference except for in the last picture it was about people moving from one place to another. The first two pictures were on the same street right across from each other based on the title which had the addresses them. There really is no great message it is just about what people see in a block of New York City. The pictures speak to the audiences in all the same ways because they all have the same central themes and show basically the same thing in each picture. The photographer's point of view was just one of anybody’s that would walk the streets of this particular block in New York City.
Ben Shahn
ReplyDeleteThe first three pictures that were taken by Ben Shahn show the effect that the dust bowl had on everyday people and showed how the eroded soil dismantled farming land. The field was turned to dirt and destroyed a farmworkers opportunity to make any sort of living. The dust bowl itself is what gave Shahn the motive to take these pictures because he wanted to share with the world just how bad things had gotten for the average farmer. Shahn must have believed that if he showed the world what these people were going through that society might have put out a helping hand for them. This picture truly lets the audience know that the average farmer is in extreme distress. This shows that Shahn felt pity for the poor people who fell victim to this situation and that he wanted to help them the way that he thought would help them the most.
Walker Evans
Three of the pictures taken by Walker Evans show the viewer the cluttered and rigid life that comes with living in a big city. These photos focus on the idea that city living is very difficult especially when you don’t have the money to be able to buy a decent less crowded place to stay. In some of the pictures that city seems somewhat empty which helps to represent the idea that city life became too expensive and some people were forced to move back out into the countryside. The message is to show the during The Great Depression things weren’t up to par in the city and that the city itself was beginning to fail even fall apart because people weren’t able to support themselves in the city. This picture fully shows that during The Great Depression cities failed just like every other part of the States and they were just another thing that had to be supported.
The first photographer I chose was Ben Shaun and his series titled, "Cotton Pickers". The subject of his photography in this series was the suffering cotton industry in the south. He believed that if he showed the result that the failing industry had on the people living there, that he would attract more attention for relief than if he had simply taken photographs of the infertile soil and suffering crops. At this time, the cotton industry, which was the major source of wealth for the south, was failing. This resulted in immense poverty plaguing the people living there. His purpose was to get the message of what was happening out to the public, so that they could understand what was actually happening. His photography speaks to his audience by showing actual starving people, struggling to get by; his subject matter really touched the emotions of the viewer. His choices in how he portrayed his photography showed me how he truly cared about what he was capturing, and how he did his absolute best to portray it in the truest light.
ReplyDeleteThe second photographer I chose was Dorothea Lange and her series titled, "migrant workers" Her main subject was the migrant workers, struggling in America during the Great Depression. The purpose of her photography was to get out to the public, the struggles which were facing the American people, as she photographed people, beaten down and exhausted just trying to survive. These pictures speak to the audience by capturing the viewer's emotions, as they see images of starving families struggling in the depression. Overall the photography showed that the photographer had to go very personally into the lives of other people all around the country in a very desperate time.
Dorthy Lange
ReplyDeleteThe first three pictures i looked at had a focus on migrant workers, they showed the struggle of how hard the workers tried and how the benefits of the city were close to none. The city is very expensive and it is shown that people are moving away because of the cost. The Great Depression is made known though the photos and a sympathetic view can be taken from these photos. It was a very rough time for these migrant workers and the three photos i looked at did a great job of showing that. Finding work was a struggle at this time.
Walker Evans
I also looked at photos from Walker Evans and I found that some of the concepts were the same as those from the images earlier. These pictures too showed the rough life in the city during the Great depression and how hard it was for these people to earn money and stay in the city.No overall message is really portrayed in these photos from Evans but life in the city was shown and how hard it was during the Depression. These pictures show New York City and how much it has been effected, one block is focused on and it is portrayed throughout the photos from the Depression.
The first artist I took interest in was Ben Shahn. His collection of pictures was based of off the different lives of cotton farmers. I looked at three pictures; one was of a group of people waiting to get to work at 6;30 a.m., another was of men and women working in the cotton fields, and another of a young African American student who has to work on the cotton field until her school opens on January 1st. The subject of all three of these pictures is to show the hard work that all of these people put in on the cotton fields. This was during the Great Depression, and Shahns purpose was to show the difficult lives of these farmers. These pictures show the audience the difficult lives these people had and how people had to make a living during this time. The photographer chose this situation to bring awareness to how these farmers lived. He wanted others to feel sympathy like he did.
ReplyDeleteThe second artist I looked at was three pictures taken by Dorothea Lange. These three pictures show an eighteen year old mother living inside a tent, how migrant workers would take care of their hygiene and a somewhat older woman working on the irrigation ditch. These pictures were taken during the Dust Bowl during the 1930’s. The purpose of these photographs were to show how people lived from day to day during the Dust Bowl, and how farmers recovered from their farms being destroyed from the drought. The audience should be able to feel for these people as they had to live from day to day, worrying if they were going to be able to feed their children the next. I think the author wanted to show her audience that they needed to understand the living conditions of some Americans during this time, and even if they could do anything for them physically, feel for them and hope that their lives are bettered soon.
For the first of the two sets, I chose “Cotton Pickers” by Ben Shahn. The three pictures in particular are “Cotton Picker, Arkansas”, “Picking cotton on Alexander plantation. Pulaski County, Arkansas” and “At the end of the day”. The subject of the collection is various different people who are cotton pickers and what their lives look like. The situation is that around the time of the photos, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl were going on. The purpose was to show the people behind the grueling work of picking cotton and get a glimpse into their life. The picture speaks to the audience because it allows for the audience to connect to those in the pictures and makes the audience have an emotional connection with them. The pictures show that the photographer wanted to show how bad it was to be in the cotton picker’s shoes.
ReplyDeleteFor the second I chose “Migrant Workers” by Dorothea Lange. The three pictures I chose were “Oklahoma migratory workers washing in a hot spring in the desert. Imperial Valley, California”, “Eighteen year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California migrant” and “Crew of thirty-five Filipinos cut and load lettuce”. The subject is the broken migrant workers and their lives. The situation was that the Great Depression was occurring and the migrant workers were doing anything possible to live. The pictures speak to the audience because like the other collection, it makes the readers connect with those in the pictures through the emotion in them. The choices made by the photographer shows that life was not was not easy at all, filled with great agony.
The first group of pictures I chose was a series called “New York City Block” by Walker Evans. the subject of this series was life in New York City during the Great Depression. He showed images of everyday people and their struggles. Some of the subjects of his photos were children, apartment building tennants, laundry drying, etc. His pictures show that life was not easy for the lower class. They had to bear with overcrowding, dirty streets, and unsafe conditions. The pictures show that most people were eventually able to overcome their struggles of the slums of the city. They also show that the photographer was sympathetic to the lives that people had to live when they had no other options but to suffer in the city. Dorothea Lange’s collection, “Migrant Workers,” drew me to it. It showed pictures of normal people who had to sacrifice their lives and go off to work somewhere to earn a meager wage. The pictures that awed me the most were of the 18 year old mother from Oklahoma, the refugee camp, and the migrant workers washing in a hot spring. These pictures all show that migrant workers faced unique struggles because they did not have the luxuries of adequate housing, drinking water, or being able to stay with one’s family. These pictures speak to the audience because it shows people that people would go to great lengths to find work amidst a horrible recession. The photographs show Dorothea’s point of view because she was able to capture all of the brave people who struggled immensely to rise above the situations that they were in, and she respected those decisions.
ReplyDeleteThe subjects in the photos captured by Dorothea Lange mostly feature migrant workers. I specifically looked at the one of the eighteen year old mother/migrant worker with her child, the migrant workers from Oklahoma washing in the hot spring in California, and the home of a Mexican migratory farm worker as he stands beside with his baby. The occasion and situation is her photos capture how everyday Americans looking for work had to adapt to life out west as migrant workers. This was during a time of the Great Depression when many were out of work, as well as the Dust Bowl, when farmers were unable to harvest their crops and make profit. The purpose of these pieces are to show how it was difficult for Americans to completely change their lifestyles around to become migrant workers, but it was really their only option. These were everyday people with lives and families and they picked up their things and moved away so they could provide for their families. The Mexican worker was literally living in a shack which was probably all he could afford to have as a migrant worker. The picture speaks to the audience because it’s humbling and shows the vulnerability felt by those in the situation. I mean, two of the people had young kids and that could not have been easy. Lange definitely made sure the point of view was one of which the audience can relate to the subjects and feel as if they could see themselves in that situation. All the photos are very natural looking and nothing looks posed. The subjects in the photos captured Ben Shahn are the children of the sharecroppers, some men resting after a long day of work, and a male cottonpicker. The occasion and situation is in Arkansas where it was very common for colored people to spend their days cotton picking as this was known as their job. These photos show a typical day of a cottonpicker in a certain town. The purpose is to give the side of Africans Americans during this time and how they had their own communities that worked together. It also is to show that African Americans were very similar in the sense of their diligent working habits, however, they were treated much poorly. The messages the pictures speak is that it shows how the African Americans, though very separated from whites at the time, were just as much of a community and were hard as cottonpickers. The picture of the children smiling and laughing was one that made me feel really good about the situation because in every picture everyone is so serious, but it was neat to see kids laughing and being happy together. The point of view that Shanh was to capture the workers in their normal element, making sure the audience could see exactly how they spent their days make then.
ReplyDeleteDorothea Lange
ReplyDeleteIn the photography series called “Migrant Workers” by Dorothea Lange, many photos are taken in the late 1930’s of people that moved around the country for work. In a photo titled “Eighteen year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California migrant”, there is a young woman sitting outside of a rugged tent and watching her dirty baby play in the dirt beneath her. The child is most likely hers due to the title. The rugged tent is probably where the two live, and similar tents are most likely where most of the workers in the area live. There is no father shown in the photo, so supporting herself and her young child may be a reason why the woman moved to California. In another photo titled “Refugee families encamped near Holtville, California”, piles of trash are shown from a distance away from the tent cities that the migrant workers lived in. This photo shocks me because it is sad to know that hundreds of thousands of people left their homes in far away places to make a successful life for themselves, only to be living in the environment that they wished to avoid. Lange captured the filth that the migrant workers lived in. In the third photo I observed in the photo series by Lange, two young men are shown watching a woman and a child migrant worker washing up in a river. The woman and child are both fully clothed for this washing, but that does not prevent them from cleaning themselves. The water is mucky, so I doubt that the two were thoroughly cleaning themselves. This photo shows the lack of privacy and cleanliness that the migrant workers were faced with in California in the late 1930’s.
Arthur Rothstein
In the photography series called “FSA Migratory Labor Camp” by Arthur Rothstein, faces of multiple migrant workers are captured.. The ages of the migrant workers vary from about three to sixty-five. In the first photo I observed, there is a photo of a young little girl, who looks to be about three or four. She has a grin on her face, and she is as cute as a button. She is most likely unaware of the work that she has to face in the future. The next photo I observed was of a young man who was about eighteen or nineteen. In the photo, he is not smiling, but he is not frowning either. This could show that he has faced hard labor, but still has hope for the future. In the last photo I observed, a man who looks about fifty-five is shown. The man has a grim look on his face, and his wrinkles show his experience and age. His facial expression shows how unhappy he most likely is.
ReplyDeleteI chose Ben Shahn's series of photos called Cotton Pickers. These pictures show the hard and extensive work that cotton pickers did for very little money. The majority of cotton pickers were African Americans because they were extremely discriminated against during this time. These photos were taken during the Great Depression when conditions were poor for the majority of the population but extremely harsh for African Americans. The purpose of these pictures are to show how hard the cotton pickers worked and how difficult life was for them. The pictures in this series speak to the audience because they help give a more accurate understanding of an African American cotton picker’s life during the Great Depression. The choices made show that the photographer wanted people to see what cotton pickers’ lives are like. It also shows that he sympathized with them and felt that they were under appreciated because his photos show many hardworking and tired people.
The second series of photos that I chose were by Arthur Rothstein called Tenant Farmers. This series of pictures shows, similar to Shahn’s serie Cotton Pickers, shows people working hard. The subjects in his pictures were living in the Dust Bowl an area affected by a severe drought that caused many farmers to lose lots of crops and money. Rothstein's purpose of taking these pictures was show other American Citizens the life of tenant farmers in the south who were former slaves. Another purpose was to show their unique culture. This series of photographs speaks to the audience because it shows the change or transition of former slaves into freedom. Many of the African Americans in the photographs are former slaves who began renting land from their former owners to farm for a profit. The choices made show that the photographer thought of this transition from slavery to freedom in these camps in a positive way because he includes pictures that do not seem to have a negative mood within them.