FSA photogrpahers Humphrey Spender By Nastya Shub Propaganda
FSA photogrpahers & Humphrey Spender By Nastya Shub
Propaganda The word originally referred to an assembly of cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church that was responsible for the propagation of the faith, and carried no negative connotations. But it has evolved into the modern sense, which is “the systematic dissemination of information, esp. in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a political cause or point of view” or “information disseminated in this way” (Oxford English Dictionary).
Why Photography for FSA? FSA (RA) setup in 1935 by Roosevelt’s administration to combat rural poverty and support New Deal Used photography as a propaganda tool to serve two purposes: - initially, show dramatic state of US rural areas (due to mistakes by previous administration) and illustrate the necessity and effectiveness of New Deal agricultural programs - later, show farm conditions were improving due to New Deal (“Emphasize the idea of abundance – the ‘horn of plenty’ and pour maple syrup over it, ” Roy Stryker, the head of the FSA’s Information Division)
FSA guidelines and manipulation Photographers were asked not to manipulate their subjects in order to get more dramatic images Pictures were almost always printed without cropping or retouching Documentary and credible, realistically depicted true events (but still perceived as ‘mild (non-totalitarian) propaganda’ because political imperatives overrode factual considerations in their selection and presentation. ) The higher-level decisions of what pictures would be taken, and what/where/when pictures would be published were taken by FSA -- in order to advance Roosevelt’s administration political goals.
Evans, Lange, Shahn: what’s in common Little concern for the ideological agenda Opening the simple and the ordinary American (rural) values to (urban) America Passionate about people and situations they photographed Disdained “photographic tricks” and “gimmicks” Faced problems with publishing photographs that ‘went too far’ or were not aligned with FSA policy Participated in other propaganda projects (e. g. war photography) – often facing serious censorship challenges (e. g. Lange’s war pictures were impounded by the Army) Ultimate disappointment in use of photography for propaganda purposes
Humphrey Spender, a liberal intellectual with powers of observation Like FSA photographers, took inspiration in every-day life of common people – in his case, British North-West and working-class culture Founder of Mass-Observation movement - taking pictures of daily life in working class communities to "study real life". A principle of Mass-Observation was that the truth would be revealed only when people were unaware that they were being photographed Claimed that all press photography was propaganda Similar to many FSA photographers, appointed an official war photographer, but was much disillusioned by the degree of censorship
Walker Evans (1903– 1975) Alabama Tenant Farmer, 1936 Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, 1936
Walker Evans: from FSA “information specialist” to America’s greatest photographer This brilliantly captures the fear and the anxiety felt during the early years of the Great Depression that left many literally tearing at the scraps left… From their first appearance in magazines and books in the 1930 s, Evans’s direct, iconic images entered the public's collective consciousness and are now deeply embedded in the nation's shared visual history of the Depression. Torn Movie Poster, 1931
Dorothea Lange (1895 -1965) Migrant Mother, 1936 Children of Oklahoma drought refugees on highway near Bakersfield, California, 1935
Dorothea Lange: war-time propaganda that failed Children at the Weill public school in San Francisco pledge allegiance to the American flag in April 1942, prior to the internment of Japanese Americans.
Ben Shahn (1898 – 1969) Cotton Pickers, 1935
Ben Shahn and the art of moving people “You're not going to move anybody with this eroded soil--but the effect this eroded soil has on a kid who looks starved, this is going to move people” Ben Shahn to FSA’s Roy Stryker In Circleville, Ohio, 1938
Humphrey Spender (1910 - 2005) Scrubbing and whitening pavement Street life - children at play
Humphrey Spender’s recording of social history Slaughterhouse “I believed that I was recording social history, revealing sociological truth. ” (Spender, 1987).
My own personal conclusion is that a photography can be extremely efficient as propaganda, but it often has a devastating effect on the artist. Propaganda is a dangerous thing that may break its tools. Thank you for your attention
Sources http: //www. bu. edu http: //www. wikipedia. com Walker Evans: photographs for the Farm Security Administration, 19351938. A Catalog of Photographic Prints Availiable from the Farm Security Administration Collection in the Library of Congress, 1973 Dorothea Lange: American photographs, 1994 Ben Shahn, Photographer. An Album From the Thirties. Edited, with an Introduction, by Margaret R. Weiss, 1973
- Slides: 16