John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

"Re-viewing Documentary: The Photographic Life of Louise Rosskam," a Talk by Laura Katzman

I'm delighted to announce that my friend, Laura Katzman, will be coming to the University of Virginia, tomorrow, December 1st, to talk about Re-viewing Documentary: The Photographic Life of Louise Rosskam, the wonderful new book that she's co-authored with Beverly W. Brannan. Laura's talk is scheduled for 6:30 in the... Read more →

Memorial Day, 1943: Esther Bubley, Photographer

Esther Bubley is one of my favorite photographers. (I've written about her, here and here.) On Memorial Day, 1943, she was all of 22 years old and working for Roy Stryker's legendary documentary project, which had recently moved to the Office of War Information [OWI] from the Farm Security Administration... Read more →

Baseball! Opening Day with the FSA

One of the enduring myths about the Farm Security Administration [FSA] is that its photographers only made gloomy pictures of poor people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite that fact that the FSA was a Depression-era federal agency that brought aid to the poor, its photographers -- under... Read more →

Gordon Parks at the Fulton Fish Market, New York, 1943

It's hard to overestimate the importance of Gordon Parks in the history of American photography. This isn't just because for over two decades ('40s, '50s, and into the '60s) he was the only African-American working within the mainstream of the photographic profession. It's also because of the extraordinarily beautiful and... Read more →

How Photography Lies, Even When It's Telling the Truth: FSA Photography & the Great Depression

Think about the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and images like the one below will spring into your head -- a photograph of a homeless mother and her children who appear to have nothing to cling to but their clothes, their car, and each other. It seems to sum... Read more →

America in Blackface: Photos from the Farm Security Administration

This is weird little photograph. (You'll want to click directly on it to see a larger version.) It shows a slightly bewildered group of white southern school kids gathering around their teacher to have blackface makeup put on their face and arms, and one little girl, looking in a mirror,... Read more →

Esther Bubley's Untitled Film Stills

Esther Bubley had a flair for the dramatic. Throughout her career, her best photos are powerful, evocative, sometimes decidedly off-center, and seem to be telling a story. Esther Bubley: Washington, D.C. Small boys watching the Woodrow Wilson high school cadets. 1943. (Click directly on any of these photos to see... Read more →