Abstract

In this study we try to explore “Photography” in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on “photography” and its relation with “the level and kinds of developments that took place at the time of the occurrence of the Great Depression of 1929”. The research also analyzes many aspects of “the usage and utilization of photography” and tries to gauge its effect on “how has it benefited the tracks and trends that prevailed during the Great Depressions”. Finally the research describes various factors which are responsible for “the heightened significance and importance of photography during the Great Depression”.

Table of Contents

Abstract1

Photography during the Great Depression3

Introduction3

Origin of Photography4

Significance of Photography5

Conclusion7

Works Cited8

Photography during the Great Depression

Introduction

Between 1929 and 1945, photography became increasingly important in art, social reform, popular culture, and even military operations. By the onset of the Great Depression, photography had become an effective agent of reform as well as an established form of art. The efforts of such photographers as Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen had enabled photography to gain acceptance as an art form, while others had followed the lead of Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine in pursuing documentary photography on behalf of social reform.

In the early 1930s, the nature-oriented Western school of photographers further developed the place of photography in the art community. Led by Edward Weston, members of this school abandoned soft-focus effects for a sharper, more detailed study of nature. Guided by this principle, Weston went on to help establish the f.64 Group in 1932. This group derived its name and artistic objectives from the smallest f-stop on the camera, which allowed for the maximum sharpness necessary for landscape photography. The most accomplished member of the Western school and the f.64 Group was the famous photographer Ansel Adams (Blitzer, Ferguson & Huang, pp. 8).

Although photography was not included in the Federal Art Project of the New Deal, it did find an important place in the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Recognizing the power of photography in the cause of reform, FSA director Roy Stryker undertook an effort to create a photographic record of the dreadful conditions of farmers and migratory laborers who faced economic disaster brought on by the depression and the dust bowl (Mitchell, pp.15). FSA photographers, including Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, created some 270,000 negatives during this project. Lange (coauthor of An American Exodus with Paul S. Taylor, 1939) devoted much attention to migrant workers, while Evans (coauthor of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men with James Agee, 1941), spent two years with the FSA following the plight of sharecroppers. When the Farm Security Agency was terminated during World War II, its photographic section was transferred to the Office of War Information (OWI) (Romer, pp.757).

Origin of Photography

In 1936, the introduction of Life and Look magazines established a popular outlet for the new genre of photojournalism, which combined photographers with researchers, writers, and editors. Photographers were briefed for their assignments and encouraged to take great quantities of photographs, so that the editors could develop ...