The Great Depression:
Photography
by Tiffany Gilbert
I think it is safe to say that most people have heard of the Great Depression. However, most are not usually familiar with the exact events and details of it. After interviewing a former classmate of mine, I realized that he, just like most, know it was “around the time of World War II” and “many people were jobless” (McGuire). In fact, most even know that the crash of the stock market is considered the official mark of the beginning of the Great Depression. The Great Depression started in the United States in 1929 and lasted until about 1939 (Watkins 10). It is looked at as the worst economic slump in history. Even though it technically started in the United States, it quickly turned into a worldwide issue (Nelson). Many countries had been reliant on the United States for credit and finances after WWI. When the economy fell on U.S. soil, those countries were highly affected. It was even Germany’s weak economy that helped Adolf Hitler start his reign. In the midst of all the financial disasters, some people were somehow able to capture the image of all the happenings on film. This particular paper is going to focus on those images and the impact and role they play in our nation’s history.
During the times of the Great Depression, the techniques and materials used to capture a photo were not nearly as advanced as today. However, photography was still looked at as a form of art, just as it is today, and it even succeeded through the tough times of the 1930s. Photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Russell Lee were hired by the government to document farmers and their living conditions (“Great Depression“). These photographs helped to raise a feeling of sympathy and encouraged other people to help when and where they could. The following picture is an example of this type of photograph:
This is Bud Fields and his family in Alabama, 1935. The photographer was Walker Evans (Nelson). The following photograph was made famous by Dorothea Lange and it is actually from a series that was taken by the photographer. The people in it had just sold their tent to get money for food. It eventually took on the title of “Migrant Mother.”
A while after the depression ended, Lange depicted what the photography assignment was like, saying this:
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it. (Popular Photography, Feb. 1960)
Without the photographs of these great artists, those of us born after the Great Depression would have no idea what the people during that time truly went through. Seeing a picture is much more descriptive than just somebody speaking the words. In addition to all of the economic struggles people were having, people still found time to be racist and prejudiced. This picture shows a black man waiting for a bus to come. It was taken in Durham, North Carolina by Jack Delano.
People had lost all faith in the banks, the number of jobless Americans continually increased, and black people were still being treated unfairly. It seems that the United States had hit its worst time ever. Thinking that things couldn’t get much worse, the biggest drought in history also decided to hit in 1934. Close to 2.5 million people fled the Plains states and headed to California in hopes of finding sunshine and a better life. The following is a depiction of what the drought did to the soil and land in that area. The vast dust storms destroyed land from North Dakota all the way to Texas. The photograph was taken by Arthur Rothstein in 1936.
Writers and photographers decided to join forces and create documentaries and journals about their journeys through the United States. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was a text by James Agee and 64 pages of pictures by Walker Evans. At the time, it seemed too much for Americans to digest, but it became what is now known as “new journalism.” This type of reporting went on to influence people as diverse as George Orwell and Tom Wolfe (“Great Depression“). This is an image of the cover of the documentary:
It’s amazing to note that only a few people died of starvation during the tough times, but most did not have enough to eat. Some would search garbage dumps and even eat weeds. The following is one of the most popular photographs taken during the Great Depression. As one can see, the line to get into the restaurant is extremely long. These lines became to be called “bread lines” because the people were waiting for food. But this food was not gourmet or even sometimes, not even tasty. It was for the bare minimum just to stay alive. Bread was one of the most popular types of food given away because it was fairly inexpensive. This particular line is to get into a $.01 restaurant. It was run on donations and one could get twenty meals for one cent. The photographer is unknown.
One of the biggest impacts that The Great Depression had was on the children. Many young people had to grow up much faster than expected and start working at a very young age. Many parents were jobless and looked to their children to find a way to make money. This is a photograph of a very young boy trying to sell flowers. As you can see, not many are purchasing anything from him. This may be because he is a black child also. Black people sometimes had it worse than whites, because they were denied jobs based solely on the color of their skin. It was taken by Carl Mydans in 1935.
While interviewing Matt McGuire, he mentioned he knew something about “Hoovervilles” and that they were named after President Hoover. These towns made of canvas tents and wood shacks were named in honor of the president who had done nothing to prevent what ultimately became a depression. The term was coined by Charles Michelson, and has even been used today to describe the tent cities found in modern day America (Watkins 282).
Because of our current economical state, the term “Hooverville” is being replaced with “Bushville” in today’s society. Seeing many of the great photographs of the 30s and 40s may make one wonder if these are going to be similar to photographs of our economy today that our children will be studying in the future. Many believe that the recession the United States is currently in will inevitably slip into another Great Depression. I believe that simply looking at the photographs included in this essay could possibly motivate the people of today to not let such a thing happen. History tends to always repeat itself. However, I believe all, myself included, would be happy if they have to never see a child working their days away, instead of enjoying their youth. If it wasn’t for the photography of that time, we wouldn’t have been exposed to such a “real” feeling and what those poor people truly experienced.
Works Cited
Gildea. William. "In a World Where The Homeless Live," Washington Post 23 Dec 1977. 23 Mar 2009 <http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iwsearch/we/InfoWeb?p_product=NewsBank&p_theme= aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=0EB325C413D7206F&p_docnum=5&p_queryna me=2>
"Great Depression." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 15 Mar 2009
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243118/Great-Depression>.
Lange, Dorothea, "The Assignment I'll Never Forget: Migrant Mother." Popular Photography (February 1960). Curtis, James. Mind's Eye, Mind's Truth: FSA Photography Reconsidered. (1989).
McGuire, Matthew. Personal Interview. 2 Mar 2009.
Nelson, Cary. "A Photo Essay on The Great Depression." Modern American Poetry. 24 Mar 2009
<http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/photoessay.htm.>
St. George, Donna. “The Great Depression, Not So Far Away.” Washington Post 16 Nov 2008: C01.
Watkins, Tom H. The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.
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