FSA photographs and photographers

[CMoore]

I guess they shot, mostly, some type of 120 and 4x5.?

Anyway....... i think they had 15 or 20 photographers working for several years.
They must have produced.... several thousand negatives.?

I always assumed, whatever photos were chosen, the pictures were widely published in magazines of the day. I assumed most people in The USA were aware of the photos and had seen at least SOME of them.
Maybe i am wrong.
WERE the photos seen by the general populace.?
If so, was there much reaction to them at the time.?

There must be a lot of great photos we have never seen. Were the negs all saved, does anybody know.?
Thank You

 

[logan2z]

This might be useful...

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/

 

[Mr Flibble]

I'd need to check my copy of "Bound for Glory", I think it was mentioned in there that all the images eventually went to the Library of Congress. Either directly from the FSA or from the the OWI.

 

[removed account4]

Hi CM
Have you seen this: https://roystryker.wordpress.com/who-is-roy-stryker/

Roy Stryker is the guy who was behind the FSA photography program.
If you ever get a chance to see the Farrah Fawcett Majors movie about Dorothea Lange don't miss it. It was a great film
about a fantastic photographer who made some of the most iconic images that described rural poverty during the Dust Bowl/Great Depression.

Most all the photographers worked off of a "script" ... Walker Evans kind of did his own thing and ignored the script. They made several hundred thousand negatives
some were in BW. some were in Color.

Several years ago there was some sort of project or "to do" about the negatives that Stryker rejected ( with a hole punch ) I can't remember if someone published them
or displayed them in a gallery setting but its always interesting to see the rejects compared to the ones that were officially accepted for publication.
Have fun in the rabbit hole
John

 

[CMoore]

Thanks for the replies.
Yes, i remember the hole-punch story. It was quite interesting.

Never knew Farah produced a Dorothea Lange movie. I will definitely check it out.
Thanks Everybody

 

[MattKing]

There is an excellent American Masters documentary about Dorothea Lange: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/dorothea-lange-about-the-film/3096/
It is full of still and movie footage of Dorothea Lange, so you get to hear her discuss many of these things herself.
I would say that most of her work of that time would have been 4x5.
There is one memorable scene where Ms. Lange holds up a negative and says to the camera something like: "would you like to see a beautiful negative?". She has a look on her face that I expect is similar to how I look when I admire a negative I'm happy with.

 

[removed account4]

Never knew Farah produced a Dorothea Lange movie. I will definitely check it out

I am sorry to admit this but I always confuse Dorothea Lang and Margaret Bourke-White..
I was just messaged by someone who reminded me since I can never remember which giant I am talking about
that Farrah played Margaret Bourke-White not Dorothea Lange..
Sorry for being so confused!
STILL its a great movie !!
I am not confused about that
John

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Really depended on the photograph and the situation. For example, during his "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" trip with Agee, Walker Evans carried a 4x5 and a Leica. Interior photographs were done with the 4x5, but most of the portraits, such as Allie Mae Burroughs', were done with the Leica.

I'm pretty sure Gordon Parks worked mostly on medium format.

I remember reading that Dorothea Lange used a Graflex Super D for her "Migrant Mother" photo.

Obviously most pictures taken in dust storms during the Dust Bowl - I'm thinking of Arthur Rothstein's famous Oklahoma dust storm pic - were done either with 35mm or 120, as you'd never be able to set up a large format camera in these conditions. Nor would you want to.

 

[MattKing]

There may have been a few Speed Graphics (and others in that family) used as well.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

You must also remember that there is a distinction to be made between the photos taken by the photographers for the FSA and those taken for themselves during their trips around the USA for the FSA. As mentioned, Stryker had pretty precise ideas of what he wanted to document and, even more important, how he wanted it documented, even though he did understand each photographer's particular interests. All the photographers complied and sent in their assignments, but that didn't prevent them from taking a bunch of photographs of the same subjects in their own, developing style.

That's why it's not always easy to know if a pic is a FSA photograph or one done during a FSA trip.

The photos had a wide variety of functions. Here's an excerpt of a Roy Stryker letter to Walker Evans that'll give you a taste of what he was after:

Tupelo - The projet at Tupelo is being returned to local management. There is an insistent demand here for additional photography to be used for publicity purposes, so it is absolutely essential that yolu get in and take a set of pictures showing the present state of the buildings, and some additional local color, also people and activities. I would suggest that you make two Leica strips of this and mail it in to us for development as soon as you can get it.

Another:

I am informed that you will find some very excellent examples of plantation homes [in Alabama]. Incidentally, most of them are in a sad state of decay. You will probably have an opportunity here to get some good erosion pictures.

We would then like to have you take the jump to Waycross, Ware and Brantley Counties, Georgia. In this vicinity you will find the Coastal Flatwood Project. Here you will find cut pine lands and turpentine workers. Get us some good 8 by 10 shots and also some good Leica shots of the turpentine workers.

By the way, I checked, it was an 8x10, not a 4x5 (as I mistakenly wrote) that he carried in Alabama in 36.

 

[ajmiller]

I am always impressed with John Vachon's "Medium format acetate negatives" on Shorpy. Not sure what camera he used. He was a filing clerk/ admin assistant before Stryker hired him to go out photographing.

 

[Tom Taylor]

FSA: The American Vision is still available on Amazon books: https://www.amazon.com/FSA-American-Vision-Gilles-Mora/dp/0810954974/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=FSA+The+American+vision&qid=1634838398&qsid=147-9419826-5461314&s=books&sr=1-1&sres=0810954974,1904832415&srpt=ABIS_BOOK
Print and reproduction quality is excellent. The hardcover version (which I have) weighs way more than the 10.6 ounces listed.

Thomas