Friday, April 27, 2012

Jack Delano

Jack Delano was a photographer for the FSA. Born Jack Ovcharov in the Ukraine, Delano emigrated to the USA with his family in 1923. His obituary, from 1997, is online.

 A prisoner dancing while another plays the guitar at a prison camp.
Greene County, Georgia, 1941

 CIO strikers, Greene County, Georgia, 1941

 Children sledding in Jewett City, Connecticut, 1940

 Dancing to the music of Red Saunders and his band at the Club DeLisa,
Chicago, Illinois, 1942

 Family living in the "crackerbox" slum tenement in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, 1940
I like the framing of the adult members of the family in the mirror.
Note the monogrammed pillowcase on the bed!

Family of of Dennis Decosta, Portugese FSA client, owns twelve cows on a small farm 
in Little Compton, Rhode Island, 1940

 Foggy night in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1941
A beautiful atmospheric photo!
 Funeral of nineteen year old Negro sawmill worker in Heard County, Georgia, 1941

 Georgia migratory agricultural worker waiting for the truck which will take her to another job 
at Onley, Virginia. Near Belcross, North Carolina, 1940

In the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Stratford, Connecticut, 1940

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Ben Shahn - Musicians

Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration. He had a strong social conscience and attempted to show, through his photographs, the effects of hard times on the lives of his subjects.

But this set focuses on people playing music. I only wish I had recordings of them!

 Aunt Samantha Baumgarner, fiddler, banjoist, guitarist, North Carolina, Asheville, 1937

 Fiddlin' Bill Hensley, mountain fiddler, Asheville, North Carolina , 1937

 Jeeter Gentry, Elmer Thompson and Fiddlin' Bill Hensley, Asheville, North Carolina, 1937

 Lovengood sisters, Asheville, North Carolina, 1937

 Mrs. Mary McLean, Skyline Farms, Alabama, 1937

 Practising for the Westmoreland Fair, Pennsylvania, 1937

 Sunday at home, Penderlea Homesteads, North Carolina, 1937

Young musician at Skyline Farms, Alabama, 1937

Russell Lee - Mothers and Children, ctd

Here's another set of photos by Russell Lee of mothers and their children.

 Mrs. Paul Rauhauser and two of her seven children in their home at Ruthven, Iowa, 1936

 People living on river side of levee, Caruthersville, Missouri, 1938

 Spectators at the contests for miners at the Labor Day celebration, Silverton, Colorado, 1940

Tub of stringbeans in sharecropper's home, New Madrid County, Missouri, 1938

 Wife of carpenter and her baby who live in community camp, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1939

 Woman teaching children at home, Transylvania, Louisiana, 1939

 Woman and child, flood refugees in schoolhouse, Sikeston, Missouri, 1937

Young Indian mother and baby, blueberry camp, near Little Fork, Minnesota, 1937

G. G. Bain

George Grantham Bain was a prolific photographer in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He founded a news photography agency. Over 40,000 Bain service photos can be seen in raw form at the Library of Congress.

 Actors Benefit for Crippled Children, 1908

 Actors' strike, New York, 1919
[It's a sea of boaters!]

 Anatomy Class circa 1905

 Babe Ruth and John McGraw, 1923
[Here are two of the most iconic figures in baseball history.]

 Children in swings, Hamilton Fish Park, New York

 Children playing in steerage, Friedrich der Grosse
[The Friedrich der Grosse was a civilian passenger liner in the late 1800s.]

 Delivering matzos & matza flour, 1908

 East Side women discussing price of meat during meat boycott, 1910
[The 1910 meat boycott, to protest high prices,
began in Cleveland, Ohio and spread across the nation.]

Flathead Indians holding family gatherings on the west side of Glacier National Park

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Edwin Locke - Photos from 1936-37

Edwin Locke was another FSA photographer.

 Children leaving grade school at Reedsville, West Virginia, 1936

 Factory girls, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1937

 Line of flood refugees at mealtime in camp for white flood refugees at Forrest City, Arkansas, 1937

 Lined up and waiting for a meal in the camp for Negro flood refugees at Forrest City, Arkansas, 1937

 Lined up and waiting for a meal in the camp for Negro flood refugees at Forrest City, Arkansas, 1937

 Negro flood refugees wearing identification tags after registering in the camp
at Forrest City, Arkansas, 1937

 Threshing, Brookeville, Maryland, 1937

 Typhoid inoculation at Marianna, Arkansas, 1937

Great expression on the face of the woman receiving the inoculation!

Young flood refugee in the camp at Forrest City, Arkansas, 1937

Russell Lee - Mothers and Children

Here's another set from Russell Lee. Mother with their children. There's something very primal about all of these images.

 Agricultural workers wait in the clinic at the FSA farm workers community,
Woodville, California, 1942

 Farmer's wife washing clothes and watching son at same time, near Morganza, Louisiana, 1938

 Mexican mother and child in doorway, San Antonio, Texas, 1939

 Mexican mother and child in home. Crystal City, Texas. 
This woman had given birth to baby on bed while she had an advanced case of gonorrhea, 1939

 Mexican woman and son looking out of window into corral, San Antonio, Texas, 1939

 Mother and child of agricultural day laborers family encamped
near Spiro, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, 1939

 Mother and child, FSA clients, former sharecroppers,
just before moving to Southeast Missouri Farms, 1938

Mrs. John Scott, wife of a hired man, with one of her six children, near Ringgold, Iowa, 1937