HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY PART 5 Capturing Reality Documentary

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY PART 5 “Capturing Reality” Documentary Photography of the 20 th Century

Jacob Riis • Immigrant to US-part of new flood hitting US in Late 1800’s • Experienced poverty and depression • Became Police reporter for the NY Tribune and Associated Press Bandits Roost - 1888

Jacob Riis • Recorded the deplorable conditions of tenement houses, police stations, and the homeless • Recorded decades of exploitation and neglect by politicians and landlords • Moral anger moved him to expose truth Five Cents Lodging -1889

Jacob Riis Men’s Room Lodging, 4 th St. Station 1892 Basement of Pub in Mulberry Bend, 3 am 1890 • His criticism helped bring about the appointment of the Tenement Housing Commission • 1888 - Leaves for the Evening Sun

How the Other Half Lives Home of Italian Rag-Picker-1888 • • Book with images, written by Riis in 1890 Became a landmark of American social reform Targeted at those who would ordinarily look the other way Inspired Teddy Roosevelt to seek reforms -called Riis, “the best American I ever knew”

Jacob Riis Women’s Lodging Room, 47 th St. Station - 1892 Police Station Lodger, A Plank for a Bed 1890 • Later wrote: The Children of the Poor-1892 – Out of Mulberry St. - 1898 – The Making of an American- 1901 – Children of the Tenements- 1903

LEWIS HINE • Worked at school as teacher, and school photographer • Used camera as teaching tool • Inspired by work of Jacob Riis • In 1904 took class to Ellis Island on field tripchanged his life forever • Documented immigrants experience on Ellis Island, Slavic Immigrant 1905

Lewis Hine • 1907 -goes to Pittsburgh, PA, participates in demographic survey • Uses photography to document lives of workers • Helps establish 10 hr. work day, workman’s comp. • Commits to documentary photography for social change Boy lost arm running saw in box factory - 1909

Lewis Hine • 1908 - hired by National Child Labor Committee • Begins 10 yr. crusade against child labor • Travels around country documenting working conditions • Encounters tons of resistance • Ultimate outcome country outlaws child labor (sends kids to school instead) Child Cotton Picker - 1913

Lewis Hine (child labor photos) Girl Worker in Cotton Mill - 1908 (above) One of many young boys on night shift at West Virginia glass factory-1908 (right)

Lewis Hine Midnight on Brooklyn Bridge -1906 (above) Spinner in New England Mill-1913 (right)

Lewis Hine Mississippi Cannery, Shrimp Picker-5 yrs old 1911 (above) Child picking Long Island Potatoes-1912 (above)

Lewis Hine Breaker Boys in Mine -1911 (top right) Breaker Boys, Pennsylvania-1910 (above) Group of Breaker Boys-1911 (bottom right)

Lewis Hine (Photos of the American worker) • 1918 -goes off to World War I with Red Cross • Documents war - changes him dramatically • No longer wants to document suffering • Focuses on dignity and pride of the American Worker • 1930 - Official photographer of the Empire State Building project Welding on a Skyscraper- 1931

Lewis Hine (Empire State Building project) Riveters working on Mooring Mast - E. S. B. -1930 View of Empire State Building from Street - 1930 -31

Lewis Hine Man on Girders, Mooring Mast, Empire State Building-1931 (above) Icarus Atop Empire State Building-1931 (right)

Lewis Hine Lunch time and a Smoke - 1930 -31

THE DEPRESSION YEARS (and beyond)

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) • Government agency that: – Made loans to farmers – Engaged in land renewal – Organized camps for migrant farm workers • Historical Section: – Gather photographic documentation of current American agriculture – Recorded the plight of America’s poor – Became vehicle to sell Roosevelt’s programs – Provided pictures to newspapers, magazines free of charge Roy Stryker-hired team of photographers (now considered legends in photographic history)

Dorothea Lange • Most widely known and famous female photographer • Documented the migrant worker and poor conditions in which they lived White Angel Bread Line-1932

Dorothea Lange Ditched, Stalled, and Stranded, San Joaquin Valley, Ca. -1935 Crossroads Store, Alabama -1937

Dorothea Lange Stranded on Edge of Pea Field, Imperial Valley, CA -1937

Dorothea Lange Migrant Mother, Nipomo, CA 1936

Arthur Rothstein • 1935 -Hired by Roy Stryker and the FSA • 1936 -Memorable work of dustbowl of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas (definitive work) • 1940 - Joins Look magazine • During WWII-serves in Office of War Information as Army photo officer • 1946 -1971 returns to Look magazine Willie S. Pettaway - 1937

Arthur Rothstein End of School Day- 1937 Home of the Pettways, now inhabited by Negroes. At Gees Bend, Alabama, 1937

Arthur Rothstein Dust storm, Oklahoma 1936

Arthur Rothstein Girl at Gees Bend, Alabama-1937

Arthur Rothstein Dust storm, Cimmaron County -1936

Walker Evans • FSA work helped establish and define his work • Documented American life before and after the depression • Straight forward, yet artistic style • Famous Books of his work: – Let Us Now Praise Famous Men – American Photographs • Fortune Magazine (20 yrs. ) as Associate Editor free to pursue his own projects Burroughs Family Cabin, Hale County, Alabama -1936

Walker Evans (Pre-FSA work) 42 nd St. , NY -1929 Couple at Coney Island, NY -1928

Walker Evans City Lunch Counter, NY -1929 Girl on Fulton Street, NY -1929

Walker Evans Citizen in Downtown Havana 1933 Torn Movie Poster - 1931

Walker Evans (FSA) Roadside stand near Birmingham, Alabama – 1936 Hale Co. , Alabama -1936

Walker Evans Garage in Southern City Outskirts 1936 Houses and Billboards in Atlanta, Georgia -1936

Walker Evans Graveyard, Houses, and Steelmill, Bethlehem, PA. -1935 Grave -1936

Walker Evans (post-FSA) Main Street in Pennsylvania Town-1935 Subway Passenger - 1941

Walker Evans (color work) Junked Cars, Connecticut- 1973 -74 Sign in Window - 1973

Gordon Parks • First well known professional African. American Photographer • 1942 - Started with the FSA • Well-rounded - writer, poet, novelist, composer, filmmaker • Wrote, directed, produced - The Learning Tree • Directed Shaft • Style - more direct than poetic, more realistic than sentimental American Gothic -1942

Gordon Parks Ella Watson and her Grandchildren - 1942

Gordon Parks Chain Gang, Alabama - 1956 Beggar Man, Paris- 1950

Gordon Parks Drug Store Cowboys, Blind River, Ontario - 1955

Gordon Parks • 1949 - Starts working for LIFE magazine • Does photo essays about American life, shows another side of America • Later photographs fashion, and artistic still lives • Notable LIFE features: – – Flavio De. Silva story (1961) Black Muslims (1963) Death of Malcolm X (1965) Death of Martin Luther King (1968) – Black Panthers and the Police (1970) Malcolm X (addressing Black Muslims, Chicago, IL. -1963

Gordon Parks Bill Walker - 1943 Muhammed Ali in Training, Miami, FL 1966

Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks