1. Photography and the Great Depression
Using Art Appreciation to Teach History

2. How to “Read” a Piece of Artwork
Similar to Reading a Book
Using Inference and deduction
Previous knowledge affects response
Source: The National Gallery in London:
drama/how-to-read-a-painting?viewPage=1

3. Activity: Reading Depression Era Photography
View your photograph. Imagine yourself in the scene of the photo.
*What do you think the photographer was trying to tell us with this photo?
*What might be happening in the photo?
*Where do you think this photo was taken?
*What emotions do you feel while viewing this photo?
*How does this inform your previous knowledge of the Great Depression? How does your previous knowledge inform your understanding of the photo?

4. FSA and Photography FSA- Farm Security Administration
Formed to help rural Americans during the Great Depression
Publicity Department - focused on high quality photography to show the people in the cities what was happening to farmers.
Hired skilled photographers, in the end the collection was over 80,000 photographs.
Published in newspapers, magazines, and displayed in art galleries.

5. FSA Photography Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) “The Migrant Mother”
Known as the “Photographer of the People”
Owned a professional portrait studio
During depression, found an interest in photographing people outside of the studio
Hired by the FSA to photograph Rural America
“The Migrant Mother”
Photographed in 1936 in Nipomo, CA

6. Impact of Photos
Lange spent years working for government agencies to document lives of everyday people during the Great Depression
After Lange returned home, she told the editor of a San Francisco newspaper about conditions of the migrant camps
The editor informed federal authorities and published an article that included two of Lange’s photos.
As a result, the government rushed aid to the camp to help prevent starvation

7. Lois Houle on Relief and Flour Sacks

8. Turn and Talk...
In what way do you think that the photography done by the FSA impacted our understanding of the Great Depression?

9. WPA and Murals Works Progress Administration
Provided relief to Americans suffering from the Great Depression
President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to provide work for artists that were on relief- “they need to eat, too”
Mission- to show a positive view of the United States

11. “Scandalous” Art
Snow Shovellers by: Jacob Getlar Smith. Picture shows unemployed men trudging off to make a few cents clearing park paths.
Scandal- Black and White Americans seen working side by side
Who might be upset with these paintings?
Why?

13. Have you seen this mural?
“Threshing Barley” – tempera
Charles W. Thwaites (1940)

14. Final Reflection
How did learning about the artwork from the Depression impact your understanding of this time period in history?
What were the main differences between the artwork commissioned by the FSA and the WPA?
Why do you think it was important to pay artists to create and capture these images?
What questions do you have that have not been answered?