Photography Ends The Great Depression

Photo by Margaret Bourke-White. Depicts flood victims during the Great Depression. Image taken from an article in TIME magazine called 'Behind the Picture:'The American Way' and the Flood of '37'

The combination of drought, irresponsible farming practices, and economic downturn, caused negative consequences for 10 years. The government at the time used a ‘hands off’ approach and believed that the economy would recover by itself. Unfortunately this was not the case, and when the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt took over he started a series of programs called the New Deal. One of the early projects was to justify the Resettlement Administration (later known as the Farm Security Administration) through photography.

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) built temporary camps and provided loans and relocation assistance for farmers. New Deal programs like this required lots of funding so there was a need to justify the programs. In a way this was both a project that sought out the truthful suffering of farmers and a sort of propaganda to show that the New Deal programs were working. A team of photographers was led by Roy Stryker. The team was composed of Arthur Rothstein, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, Russell Lee, Carl Mydans, and Jack Delano. Some of these photographers, such as Arthur Rothstein and Dorothea Lange, had their careers launched through this program. Nowadays you can see the work of these artists in the Library of Congress online archives. There is about 175,000 black-and-white negatives that you can look at.

This photographic collection as a whole helped back up President Roosevelt’s initiatives. They also helped spread the awareness of the dismal conditions of the farmers across the country and throughout the world. A selection of about 208 photos were even shown by the director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, Edward Steichen. The show was titled ‘The Bitter Years’ and it completed a European tour during the 1960s and was gifted to Luxembourg in 1967. The collection has appeared twice since then, once in Luxembourg in 1995 and then in 1996 in Tokyo. It underwent refurbishment and is now on permanent display in Luxembourg.

These photos still have a heavy impact today because they show the strength of those farmers and by extension Americans, and the intense emotion experienced during these hard times. They also bring up some political questions. To what extent should the government involve itself in the daily lives of Americans, especially in crisis situations? Or should it involve itself at all? In the case of the Great Depression governmental assistance in the New Deal programs seemed to work out, but would it work out today?

Works Cited:

Mcdermott, Annette. “How Photography Defined the Great Depression.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2018, www.history.com/news/how-photography-defined-the-great-depression.

Cosgrove, Ben. “'The American Way': Photos From the Great Ohio River Flood of 1937.” Time, Time, 24 Mar. 2014, time.com/3879426/the-american-way-photos-from-the-great-ohio-river-flood-of-1937/.

The Economist Editors. “Looking Back.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 22 Oct. 2012, www.economist.com/prospero/2012/10/22/looking-back.