Following the Photographers of the Great Depression III: West United States

Figure 7: Japanese agricultural workers packing broccoli. Guadalupe, California.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@FILREQ(@FIELD(DOCID+@LIT(fsa2000000808/PP))+@FIELD(COLLID+fsa))

Figure 8: Pea Harvest. Family at work. Nipomo, California.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@FILREQ(@FIELD(DOCID+@LIT(fsa2000000988/PP))+@FIELD(COLLID+fsa))

Figure 9: Mexican townfolk sacking peppers. Stockton, California.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@FILREQ(@FIELD(DOCID+@LIT(fsa2000000765/PP))+@FIELD(COLLID+fsa))

Finally, on the West Coast, the photographs of the FSA will illustrate more migrant workers settled into makeshift communities. And these small communities become more diversified in ethnic composition. Therefore, I find these photos to deal more with the racial conflicts that arise in such competitive situations.

All three photos (Figures 7, 8, and 9) by Dorothea Lange, one of the most renowned FSA photographers, envision the racial equality that the nation needed at that time. Although they are all set in different locations, the way the photos are “staged” provides the perfect opportunity to tie them altogether. All the subjects in each photo are migrant workers in some farm located in California. They all came searching for jobs and started immediately on the first available opportunity. Unfortunately, these jobs cost them arduous physical labor. For example, the white workers busily harvest peas; the Japanese workers finish their last bit of packing broccolis into boxes; and the Mexican couple works together to fill the sack with peppers. When it comes to the way they dress, not one person is more dressed than the other—all three ethnic groups share the same appearances by wearing soiled working clothes. All these aspects of these photos are evident only because Lange found the perfect opportunity to capture these workers in their respective states.

The most important trait shared by all three photos is the expressions on all the workers’ faces. All the faces depict some sort of anguish in the workers. Since they share the same fate as anyone else in the farm, they empathize with each other, knowing the same pains and struggles. Just as they rely on whoever is close to them in their work for any physical help, the faces we see almost persuades us to jump into the photo and carry each of their sacks/boxes for them. This is exactly what the FSA photographers wanted; it was their job to capture these photos. As Rothstein wrote, “The most effective documentary photographs are those that convince their observers with such compelling, persuading truth that they are moved to action” (Carlebach 20).

On a final note, Stryker’s comment on the FSA program explains the purpose of having this collection of photos started:

“It was a troubled period. There were depressed areas, depressed people. Our basic concern was with agriculture—with dust, migrants, sharecroppers. Our job was to educate the city dweller to the needs of the rural population.” (17)

The Great Depression was a difficult period for America. During this time, what the United States was a unified population, willing to work together, to change the current into something reputable. And so, hired by the government, the small platoon of photographers set off into the corners of the nation, capturing pictures of the truths yet unknown to most of the country. However, these “truths” were not complete truths. As Barthes may claim, photographs do not contain or illustrate truth for the lens alters the signification of the image. Although the images provided by the FSA may have been claimed as “accurate,” as we can see in the pictures themselves (and from our knowledge of the capabilities of the photographers as artists), we can identify that these collections of images had a political agenda. Ultimately, however, they provided a lens into the society that was broken through divides in class, gender, and race. The United States as it is today, we can only marvel at the impressive power of photography.

Works Cited

Abelson, Elaine S. “‘Women Who Have No Men to Work for Them’: Gender and Homelessness in the Great Depression, 1930-1934.” Feminist Studies 29.1 (2003): 104-127. Print.

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. New York: The Noonday Press, 1972. Print

Carlebach, Michael L. “Documentary and Propaganda: The Photographs of the Farm Security Administration.” The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 8 (Spring, 1988): 6-25. Print.

Pultz, John. The Body and the Lens: Photography 1839 to the Present. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1995. Print