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Bowled over

Government photos reveal the darker side of nostalgia

by Leon Nigrosh

DOCUMENTING AMERICA, 1935-1943 at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, 220 State Street, Springfield, through September 7.

It was the middle of the Great Depression and the federal Farm Security Administration was in a quandary. It needed more money from Congress to assist the impoverished Dust Bowl farmers, who were barely holding on to their land. In order to drive the point home, FSA administrator Roy Stryker assembled a small group of sympathetic photographers and sent them into the hinterlands to record the rampant devastation and poverty that was spreading across America, particularly in the South and West.

The photographers sent back compelling pictures from the field, and the FSA received larger appropriations. But what started out as a government program to document desperate conditions slowly began to change; the photographers became caught up in their subjects, losing their objectivity and making pictures that were more than just a composition of facts, but photos that captured the essence of the 1930s and early '40s.

In eight years, the group of nearly 20 photographers amassed more than 77,000 pictures -- all of which are on file at the Library of Congress. A tiny fraction of these photos taken by 12 of the participants is currently on display at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts. More than 50 years after they were taken, these 198 photographs still contain powerful images that bring fresh insight to a monumental era in our country's history.

In 1935, to promote agrarian reform, printmaker and painter Ben Shahn was sent to Arkansas to photograph cotton pickers. But Shahn's pictures do much more than simply record the seasonal toils, they elevate the pickers, depicting them as individuals. Shahn noted that though these people "maintained a transcendental indifference to their lot in life," they were vibrant and full of spirit -- a sensibility he captured in many of his photos.

Stryker sent newspaper photog Marion Post Wolcott to Florida to photograph migrant fieldworkers early in 1939, but a "freeze out" had destroyed most of the crops. With no poor folks to shoot, Post Wolcott went to Miami Beach and took pictures of rich folks. Her photo of a man in a linen suit and Panama hat standing in a gigantic hotel entrance is at once a work of visual delight and a stinging scommentary of the times. Hitler was wreaking havoc in Europe, but many people still had time (and money) to go to the races at Hialeah or have a catered meal on the beach, and Wolcott captured them on film.

Russell Lee was in Vale, Oregon on a FSA assignment to photograph the small-town happenings on Independence Day, in 1941. Except for the clothing and cars, his pictures of picnickers, parade floats, kids in costume, and the merry-go-round could have been taken in today's rural America. At the time, no one had any inkling that a scant five months later, Pearl Harbor would be attacked.

World War II changed everything for the US, even Stryker's photography section. His group were immediately transferred to the Office of War Information and sent out on assignments to capture how citizens were coping with war. The photographers were also responsible for whipping up patriotism.

On his very next assignment, Lee was sent to take pictures of the 110,000 Japanese-Americans (the vast majority of whom were US citizens) as they were rounded up in California to be sent to the euphemistically named "relocation camps." Irony fills Lee's picture of the Japanese-American Citizen's League final lunch just before its evacuation. Stylishly dressed women sit in front of a meal of hot dogs and apple pie. Another poignant picture is Lee's image of a little Japanese-American boy reading a comic book, eating a Nestle's chocolate bar, and tagged just like the luggage behind him.

There is a lot to digest in this exhibit, including Gordon Parks's photo essay of "Ella Watson, US Government Charwoman," Esther Bubley's emotional cross-country bus trip, and Jack Delano's moody views of the wartime goings-on in Chicago's Union Station.

Although it might seem so long ago that the US was involved in WWII, these photos reintroduce turbulent times. We can only hope that a new generation will not repeat the mistakes, and that these photos will serve as a reminder.

The Springfield Museum of Fine Arts is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Call (413) 263-6800.