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"Documentary photography United States History 20th century."
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Picturing Faith
In the midst of the Great Depression, the American government initiated one of the most ambitious national photographic projects ever undertaken. Such photographers as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Gordon Parks-all then virtually unknown-were commissioned to chronicle in pictures the economic struggle and social dislocation of the Depression era. They explored every facet of rural life in an effort to document the troubles, as well as the spirit, of the nation.
Fanning out across the country, these photographers captured a nation alive with religious faith-from Dust Bowl migrants singing hymns to orthodox Jews praying in rural Connecticut. InPicturing Faith,the preeminent historian of religion Colleen McDannell recounts the history of this extraordinary project, telling the stories of the men and women who participated in it and exploring these little-known images of America.
Lavishly illustrated,Picturing Faithteases out the various and conflicting ways that these photographers portrayed American religion and enhances our understanding of how religion was practiced during this critical period of American history.
eBook
The realisms of Berenice Abbott : documentary photography and political action
The Realisms of Berenice Abbott provides the first in-depth consideration of the work of the photographer Berenice Abbott. She is best known for her 1930s documentary images of New York City, but in this book, Terri Weissman examines a broad range of Abbott's work, including her portraits from the 1920s, her little-known and uncompleted projects from the 1930s, and her experimental science photography from the 1950s. Weissman argues that Abbott consistently relied on realism as the theoretical armature for her work, even as her understanding of that term changed over time and in relation to specific historical circumstances. As Weissman demonstrates, Abbott's unflinching commitment to \"realist\" aesthetics led her to develop a critical theory of documentary that recognizes the complexity of representation without excluding or obscuring a connection between art and engagement in the political public sphere. In telling Abbott's story, The Realisms of Berenice Abbott reveals insights into the politics and social context of documentary production and presents a thoughtful analysis of why documentary remains a compelling artistic strategy today. --Book Jacket.
Book
Eyes on labor : news photography and America's working class
Eyes on Labor narrates an essential chapter in American cultural history, offering a fascinating broad-stroke history of the relationship of photography to the complex and troubled history of 20th-century labor and unionization movements.
eBook
Making Photography Matter
Photography became a dominant medium in mass culture starting in the late nineteenth century. As it happened, viewers increasingly used their reactions to photographs to comment on and debate public issues as vital as war, national identity, and citizenship. Cara A. Finnegan analyzes a wealth of newspaper and magazine articles, letters to the editor, trial testimony, books, and speeches produced by viewers in response to specific photos they encountered in public. From the portrait of a young Lincoln to images of child laborers and Depression-era hardship, Finnegan treats the photograph as a locus for viewer engagement and constructs a history of photography's viewers that shows how Americans used words about images to participate in the politics of their day. As she shows, encounters with photography helped viewers negotiate the emergent anxieties and crises of U.S. public life through not only persuasion but action, as well.
eBook
Advancing the civil rights movement
Advancing the Civil Rights Movement: Race and Geography of Life Magazine's Visual Representation, 1954–1965 examines the way Life Magazine covered the civil rights movement visually and geographically. Michael Dibari addresses Life's visual impact and representation in the struggle for equal rights.
eBook
Horace Poolaw, Photographer of American Indian Modernity
Laura E. Smith unravels the compelling life story of Kiowa photographer Horace Poolaw (1906-84), one of the first professional Native American photographers. Born on the Kiowa reservation in Anadarko, Oklahoma, Poolaw bought his first camera at the age of fifteen and began taking photos of family, friends, and noted leaders in the Kiowa community, also capturing successive years of powwows and pageants at various fairs, expositions, and other events. Though Poolaw earned some income as a professional photographer, he farmed, raised livestock, and took other jobs to help fund his passion for documenting his community.Smith examines the cultural and artistic significance of Poolaw's life in professional photography from 1925 to 1945 in light of European and modernist discourses on photography, portraiture, the function of art, Native American identity, and American Indian religious and political activism. Rather than through the lens of Native peoples' inevitable extinction or within a discourse of artistic modernism, Smith evaluates Poolaw's photography within art history and Native American history, simultaneously questioning the category of \"fine artist\" in relation to the creative lives of Native peoples.A tour de force of art and cultural history,Horace Poolaw, Photographer of American Indian Modernityilluminates the life of one of Native America's most gifted, organic artists and documentarians and challenges readers to reevaluate the seamlessness between the creative arts and everyday life through its depiction of one man's lifelong dedication to art and community.
eBook