Old WPA photo's

[pappy19]

It takes a while for the pictures to come up, but worth the wait. This will make you thankful for what we have today. We have come a long way baby!
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History Lesson:

If you're old (as some of us are) and love photography (as I do), you'll enjoy these old WPA photos. Kodachrome had a few problems at birth, but within a year or two became the premier color film of all time. Nothing has ever surpassed it for resolution and archival qualities. Sadly, it has essentially died out and only one lab in the world will still process it, and then only 35mm.

The WPA was a good thing for America at the time, and because they paid professional photographers to document the program we have a legacy of photographs, many in color, that realistically documented that period in our history. This site (link below) is well worth a look if you like history and photography.

The name of the instrumental accompaniment is Vaya Con Dios. I don't know who's playing it, but it doesn't sound like Floyd Cramer.



Great pictures from America 's past, click on the site below



A Look Back In History

 

[actionaj]

Cool web site.

 

[dmccarty]

Interesting photos. Wish he had not made all of the political comments.

We went to the NC History museum awhile ago and they had some B&W photos taken in the 20/30s up in the mountains. Very interesting.

I finally switched fully over to digital and sold off all of my film camera's this year. I had a gallon bag of old film in the freezer that I tossed. Still had a few rolls of Kodachrome. Love my Kodachrome.

Later,
Dan

 

[turbo36]

Interesting photos. Wish he had not made all of the political comments.

We went to the NC History museum awhile ago and they had some B&W photos taken in the 20/30s up in the mountains. Very interesting.

I finally switched fully over to digital and sold off all of my film camera's this year. I had a gallon bag of old film in the freezer that I tossed. Still had a few rolls of Kodachrome. Love my Kodachrome.

Later,
Dan

These are incredible photo's , many I've never seen before ( this time period is a hobby of mine) I'm not sure why you used the term "political statements" pretty much all the statements are of historical record and not a political opinion or ideology.

 

[Bird]

The name of the instrumental accompaniment is Vaya Con Dios. I don't know who's playing it, but it doesn't sound like Floyd Cramer.

Very interesting pictures. And it "says" that's Floyd Cramer. I think it actually is, but it is a bit different from most of what I liked by him, I might be wrong.

 

[N80]

I love the photography of Dorthea Lange and Walker Evans. There is a book called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by southern author James Agee which features the photography of Evans and other WPA photographers.

I think the politics of the WPA is a potentially hot topic with great lessons for us right here and now. Some feel that the WPA and all of Roosevelt's programs were necessary and pragmatic and saved this country. Some feel, as I do, that it marked the intrusion of the government into areas not specified in the constitution and greatly socialized this nation and were in the end a failure and only the economic boom of WWII and post WWII actually saved us. Opinions will vary and my point in all this is not to start a political discussion but to suggest as people look at these photos to think of what such programs meant to us and how the photos were used (were they social commentary, propaganda, unbiased documentary, etc etc). Great photos, great topic and worth all of our thought.

Oddly, it seems to me, that no matter how the government or the photographers intended the photos to be used, they have transcended that purpose as both magnificent works of art and pure document.

Another great photographer of the era is Margaret Bourke White who documented the industrial growth of the US.

As for Kodachrome, it was indeed a great film. Some really like its color rendition, others find it a bit garrish. To me, Kodachrome colors do not look accurate but I'm a bit odd and never did even like Fuji Velvia which is the high saturation darling of contemporary color landscape photographers. According to Wickipedia, the weakest color in terms of long term stability in Kodachrome slides is yellow and it is supposed to endure for 180 years! I have 50 year old Kodachromes of my grandfather that still look great and they were never in any sort of ideal storage. Kodachrome does not last very well when exposed to light, escpecially bright light and can degrade when used frequently in a projector.

Kodachrome does not scan well, at least not with consumer film scanners. I could never get excellent results with my Nikon CS IV scanner.

But the bottom line is, you can pick up a 60 year old Kodachrome slide and with no more technology than sunlight you can look at it and enjoy it. I doubt the same will be true in 60 years when my grandkids dig out an old DVD with all my digital pictures on it. Not only will they probably have nothing to put a DVD into....they probably won't even know what it is!

 

[kenmac]

thanks for the great photos and the history

 

[dmccarty]

These are incredible photo's , many I've never seen before ( this time period is a hobby of mine) I'm not sure why you used the term "political statements" pretty much all the statements are of historical record and not a political opinion or ideology.

Well, what in the photos supports the text?

People giving funny looks at a guy taking photos is not because of racism.

The houses in "Southern city" look just fine. They need some paint and some trim work. I can show you houses TODAY that look just like those houses. If you notice the street in the "Southern City" there is no trash. Go look at the NYC photo. Lots of trash in the street. Which street do you want to live on? The photo from the lower east side talks about the vibrant Jewish community. I guess the people in the Ninth ward could not have a vibrant community. After all there was no discrimination against Jews. That is sarcasm BTW. I know someone from the Ninth Ward. Prior to Katrina they did have a vibrant community.

What in the photos leads or supports the statements? Why do some photos have negative language while others do not? Could it be the BIAS in the person who made the website?

HOW did they get the photo on the NYC street? There is little blurring, its at night, and Kodachrome is not a fast film.

Later,
Dan

 

[Blagadan]

Thanks for the link. NIce for someone who lives outside america to see "how it was".

I liked this one the most. I'm not train chaser, but I'd love to have one like this framed, awsome light.

 

[N80]

Dan, of course its bias. Any art can be interpreted in any way and can be used to support any ideology or propaganda. I did not read anything on that web site, so I don't know what it said.....and don't much care.

If it is trying to make racial or regional statements about people during the Great Depression then the comments are probably half-baked and reactionary. The depression affected all regions of the US and many of the most poignant photos come from California and the mid west....not the deep south or even urban ghettos.

I am very suspicious of people who use older, well established art or literature to support contemporary agendas. Its the cheapest form of art appreciation or criticism. Unfortunately this has been the predominant form of academic study in the universities for the last 40 years and as such it has crippled the study and production of literature in this country and has affected the other arts as well.

Okay, off the soap box now. But, I would encourage everyone to go to other web sites and look at other books about the WPA photographers. Don't read anything. Just look at the pictures. Look at the people in them and see what they say to you. Don't try to figure out how the Roosevelt administration wanted them to be used, don't try to force a contemporary agenda on them. Look for things like love, loss, pain, sympathy, care, joy, courage, fear etc etc. Those things are universal and transcend the issue of that time and this.

 

[dmccarty]

George,

Well said.

Let the photos document what they document. The picture of the girl with I suppose the grandpa could have been taken today except for their clothing and the car in the background.

The photos of the kids with the dresses made from feed/flour sacks is really good. I have read over and over of families making clothes from sacks. Always thought of it as a bad thing. Not so sure after seeing the photos. I think the material used in the sacks was used as a marketing tool. Those dresses look pretty good to me and they are not at all what I thought they would look like.

People make fun of people who live in trailers. Single wides are a big step up from the tar paper shacks that I remember people living in not so long ago. Can't really tell in some of the photos which is better, the house in the photo or the tar paper shack.

I remember hunting and camping in the Applachians in KY in the 70s. It was not uncommon to see a tar paper shack with a Caddy or other nice car parked out front. It just stuck out. One could take a photo out back showing poverty. But would the photo be telling the truth? They made a choice of a nice car over a nice house.

The train photo is just danged good.

Later,
Dan

 

[N80]

I also think something that gets messed up in some people's thinking is that poverty is necessarily a bad thing. Of course malnutrition, insufficient shelter, etc is bad no matter how you slice it. But often times not having 'nice' cloths, or 'nice' cars, or fancy homes is seen as poverty. And that may be a form of poverty, but hardly the kind of poverty that indicates some sort of social injustice.

It also saddens me to think that we now equate poverty with saddness and consider it to be demeaning. The premise of that notion is that happiness is derived from 'things' and if you don't have things you can't be happy and you can't be good or noble or respectable. So sometimes photos of poverty can alert us to problems that need to be fixed, at other times they can suggest that lack of stuff means lack of happiness and respect. My mother grew up poor, like no shoes poor. Times were tough and there were sad times, but she has never felt that her childhood was bad because of lack of things. Again, I'm not trying to diminish the negative impact of true poverty, but at the same time I do not believe that lack of possessions is equivalent to lack of purpose, happiness, respect or human dignity.

And some of what you see in these WPA photos CONFIRMS that. If you look at a lot of these people you see what hardship has done to them but they still appear defiant, strong and steady. This does not mean they aren't sad, or worried or hungry, but it does mean that you can see that they are not broken. That's the beauty I see in many of these photos.

 

[turbo36]

Dan, of course its bias. Any art can be interpreted in any way and can be used to support any ideology or propaganda. I did not read anything on that web site, so I don't know what it said.....and don't much care.

.

How can you offer an opinion if you didn't read it???? Isn't that just prejudicial thinking?

 

[N80]

The only opinion I rendered on that particular website was qualified with an "if". And the only point in that qualified opinion was that to cast the woes of the depression as solely regional would be a mistake, which is self evident really, regardless of what was in the text. But yes, to render an unqualified opinion on text you had not read would indeed be predjudicial.

 

[Ridgewalker]

The photos of the kids with the dresses made from feed/flour sacks is really good. I have read over and over of families making clothes from sacks.

My Mom talks about going to the feed store and getting to pick out a 50 lb bag of flour so she could get the pattern she wanted for her new dress.

I have an old glass piggy bank that came in a feed sack...anyone ever see one of those? They used to be common in this area.

 

[Bird]

I have read over and over of families making clothes from sacks. Always thought of it as a bad thing.

My Mom talks about going to the feed store and getting to pick out a 50 lb bag of flour so she could get the pattern she wanted for her new dress.

So one of you read about it and the other had a mother who told of it. I lived it. I was 15 years old the first time I bought a shirt in a store. Prior to that time, I had been given white "dress" shirts occasionally to wear to church, but all my other shirts were made by my mother. She also made her own clothes and those of my two younger sisters and two younger brothers. And yes, we bought chicken feed, cow feed for the milk cow, and hog feed. So whichever kid was due a new shirt or dress went with dad to the feed store to pick out the color or pattern he/she wanted.

Of course we weren't as "poor" as some folks. We actually had store bought underwear and socks. And boys got 3 new pair of blue jeans to start school each year. How many of you have used a light bulb as a "darning" bulb to darn socks? You didn't throw away socks just because they had a hole in them; you fixed the hole.

White flour and sugar sacks were either made into pillow cases, or hemmed for "cup towels" to dry the dishes, or were sewn together to make the bottom, or back, side of quilts.

I was almost grown before I learned that flour and sugar could be bought in smaller containers than 25 pound sacks.

 

[dmccarty]

So one of you read about it and the other had a mother who told of it. I lived it.

Was the material of decent quality? How did it feel? From the photos it looks like any material one would buy to make clothes.

The only feed sacks I ever saw were pretty rough material. I had visions of kids running around in something a step above burlap.

The photo about the dance was interesting in that the wall looks like its covered in butcher paper. I can't tell if the paper is "lumpy" because the paper has slump or if the wall is stuffed with some kind of insulation. The farm I worked on had an old house built in the early 1900's which had newspaper has wall paper.

Later,
Dan

 

[N80]

I've seen old sharecropper shacks 'wall papered' with news paper.

 

[Bird]

Dan, burlap was a word I never heard when I was a kid. We called'em "tow sacks". And yes, they were used for stuff that wasn't small or fine enough to escape through the weave. But I think anything smaller than whole kernal corn had to be bagged in something with a tighter weave.

And yes, I think the material in the feed sacks was the same cotton material you'd buy in the dry goods store. So it didn't feel any different than store bought clothes.

As you know, most products back then were packaged differently than they are now. You didn't have all that "packaging" to dispose of. The packaging was either returnable to be reused (soda bottles, milk bottles, and such) or, as was made to be used in some other way, as the sacks for feed, flour, and sugar were.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Thank you, guys, this is probably the most interesting thread here.

And George, I understand what you mean and I am with you. As the saying goes, small problems are problems fixable with money.

It reminds me kind of my growing up - with understanding, that if I go to college, I will do interesting work, but I will never be well paid. See in our twisted socialistic world there were rich groups - like communists in high posts, miners and steel workers (exemplary blue collars, the proletariat to show) and those who could make money on the side (waiters, gas station operators, greengrocers, cab drivers...)

OK, I got carried away