On October 29th, 1929, the Stock Market crashed, propelling this country into a decade known as the Great Depression. Three years later, approximately one out of every four Americans was unemployed. By 1932, Roosevelt replaced Hebert Hoover in the White House; he immediately began to implement his recovery policy, known as the “New Deal. The "New Deal" consisted of various government programs that helped to aid the economy, farmers, and the unemployed. FDR established the CCC (Civilian Conservation Core), The WPA (Works Progress Administration), and the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act, which later became the FSA or Farm Security Administration).
The Farm Security
In 1937, President Roosevelt established the Farm Security Administration (formally the Resettlement Administration) to help assist struggling farmers through the Great Depression. In 1935, a man named Roy Stryker headed the FSA’s or RA’s Historical section, a team of photographers charged with showing the “city people what its like to live on a farm”. Although the FSA photographers were aware of the historical significance of their photographs, they often had to produce pictures that glorified the Government Relief efforts. Still , over 10,000 FSA photographs exist today in government archives; many of these photographs have become important historical documents that accurately depict the lives of rural families as they struggled during the Great Depression, FSA Photographers included Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, Gordon Parks, and Marion Post Wolcott.
The FSA Photographers and the Great Depression
Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange. 1936
Cotton pickers 6:30 a.m., Alexander plantation, Pulaski County, Arkansas, Ben Shahn, 1935
Hale County, Alabama , Walker Evans, 1936
Here are some useful Links information on photography and the Great Depression:
Migrant Mother
Hard Times
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