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

2. 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

3. 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

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

5. 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”

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

7. 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 trip-changed his life forever
Documented immigrants experience on Ellis Island
Ellis Island, Slavic Immigrant -1905

8. 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

9. Lewis Hine 1908- hired by National Child Labor Committee
Child Cotton Picker
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)

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

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

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

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

14. 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

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

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

17. Lewis Hine
Lunch time and a Smoke

19. THE DEPRESSION YEARS (and beyond)

20. 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)

21. 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

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

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

24. Dorothea Lange
Migrant Mother, Nipomo, CA -1936

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

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

27. Arthur Rothstein
Dust storm, Oklahoma -1936

28. Arthur Rothstein
Girl at Gees Bend, Alabama-1937

29. Arthur Rothstein
Dust storm, Cimmaron County -1936

30. 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

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

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

33. Walker Evans
Citizen in Downtown Havana -1933
Torn Movie Poster

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

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

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

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

38. Walker Evans (color work)
Junked Cars, Connecticut
Sign in Window

39. Gordon Parks
First well known professional African-American Photographer
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

40. Gordon Parks
Ella Watson and her Grandchildren

41. Gordon Parks
Chain Gang, Alabama
Beggar Man, Paris- 1950

42. Gordon Parks
Drug Store Cowboys, Blind River, Ontario

43. 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 DeSilva 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

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

45. Gordon Parks

46. Gordon Parks

47. Gordon Parks

48. Gordon Parks