Ben Shahn's American Portraits

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Ben Shahn’s American Portraits Pictures from the road 1935 and 1938

Edited and photobook design by C. Thomas Anderson Edited and photobook design by C. Thomas Anderson produced by thegreatdepressionphotos.com 2014

All photogaphs taken by Ben Shahn for the Resettlement and Farm Security Administrations 1935-1938

[Bracketed captions are by government editors or by me.] All unbracketed captions by Ben Shahn.

Photos courtesy of Library of Congress Washington, DC

Quotations from Oral history interview with Ben Shahn Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1964

Cover photo Jaspar Lancaster, Arkansas rehabilitation client October 1935 In 1935 Ben Shahn left his home in New York City to start work in Washington for Rexford Tugwell and the Resettlement Administration, an agency created that year by Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order. The agency’s mission was to resettle indigent, predominantly rural, people living in shacks into new housing and communities. The story of Ben Shahn’s brief career in photography must be told within the context of the Resettlement Administration and its goal of solving American poverty thru social engineering. Shahn, an accomplished lithographer and painter, with his posters and other art work would be asked to create propaganda that would support this grand social experiment. Having never been across the Hudson River Tugwell sent Shahn to travel America and experience the heartland first hand. He created a photographic record of those travels for his future lithographs and paintings, but at the same time he created an artistic benchmark for the group of talented photographers beginning their work for Roy Stryker in the historic section of the Resettlement Administration. He would not work under Stryker’s direction for another two years, but with his 1935 photographs Shahn would convince Stryker a camera in the hands of an inspired artist would work wonders. Ben Shahn First Trip South Scott’s Run, West Virginia October 1935 It was a really tough time and when this thing came along and this idea that I must wander around the country a bit for three months...I just nearly jumped out of my skin with joy. And not only that, they were going to give me a salary too! I just couldn't believe it. Anyway, I went and I found things that were very startling to me. For instance, I remember the first place I went to on this trip, where we were active -- these resettlements that we built -- I found that, as far as I was concerned, it was impossible to photograph. Neat little rows of houses, and this wasn't my idea of something to photograph, and I had the good luck to ask someone, "Where are you all from? Where did they bring you from?" When they told me, I went down to a place called Scott's Run [WV] and there it began. Ben Shahn 1964 Doped singer, “Love oh, love, oh keerless love,”

Relief investigator reported a number of dope cases.

Scotts Run, West Virginia.

October 1935 Cattle dealer in western West Virginia October 1935 Coal miner's child, Omar, West Virginia October 1935 Liberty, unincorporated, Scotts Run, West Virginia. Negro family living in Moose Hall October 1935 School youngsters Red House, West Virginia October 1935 [Children with their best clothes on for photo] Omar, West Virginia October 1935 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Scotts Run, West Virginia. Miner's sons] October 1935 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Sunday in Scotts Run, West Virginia] October 1935 Citizens of Omar, West Virginia October 1935 Group of coal miners, Williamson, West Virginia October 1935 Kentucky October 1935 Scene in Smithland, Kentucky, man, woman, and child October 1935 Scene in Smithland, Kentucky October 1935 Resident of Smithland, Kentucky September 1935 Kentucky coal miner, Jenkins, Kentucky October 1935 Kentucky coal miners, Jenkins, Kentucky October 1935 Tennessee October 1935 A deckhand aboard the Queen of Dycusburg, Memphis, Tennessee October 1935 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Negro at religious meeting in Nashville, Tennessee] September 1935 Maynardville, Tennessee [Medicine Show] October 1935 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: [Man] at religious meeting in Nashville, Tennessee] September 1935 Murfreesboro, Tennessee October 1935 Religious meeting, Nashville, Tennessee September 1935 Medicine show audience, Huntingdon, Tennessee October 1935 Arkansas October 1935

When he arrived in the Ozarks, Shahn understood the limitation of the single photographic portrait. While in Tennessee he had begun to take at least two photos of interesting people. He thought any future paintings based on these images would require different angles and human expressions to portray the person he put on canvas adequately. In the process he set a standard of excellence for FSA portrait photography. Wife and child of sharecropper, Arkansas October 1935 A destitute family, Ozark Mountains area October 1935 Destitute tenant farmer's family, Ozark Mountains, Arkansas October 1935 Children of rehabilitation client, Maria plantation, Arkansas October 1935 Blind street musician, West Memphis, Arkansas October 1935 Rehabilitation clients, Boone County, Arkansas October 1935 Sam Nichols, tenant farmer, Boone County, Arkansas October 1935 Child of rehabilitation client, Arkansas October 1935 Sharecropper's child, Pulaski County, Arkansas October 1935 ...mother and child, Little Rock, Arkansas October 1935 Boone County, Arkansas. The family of a Resettlement Administration client in the doorway of their home October 1935 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Children of rehabilitation client, Maria plantation, Arkansas] October 1935 Louisiana October 1935 Strawberry picker, Hammond, Louisiana October 1935 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: An old sailor snapped in Jackson Square, New Orleans] October 1935 Trische family, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, tenant farmers October 1935 Young residents at Amite City, Louisiana October 1935 Child of Fortuna family, Hammond, Louisiana October 1935 Strawberry picker, Hammond, Louisiana October 1935 Unemployed trappers, Louisiana October 1935 Mississippi October 1935 Three ...children, Natchez, Mississippi October 1935 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: [black] quarter, Natchez, Mississippi. The home of a ... family with a ... man and a woman looking out a window] October 1935 Two women walking along street, Natchez, Mississippi October 1935 Scene in Natchez, Mississippi October 1935 Miner at Calumet, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania October 1935 Members of the Musgrove family, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania October 1935 Miner's son, Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania October 1935 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Hungarian miner, Calumet, Pennsylvania. Worked in the mines for thirty-four years, now sixty-three with no pension and no work] October 1935 Second trip south 1937

In 1937 after working two years as a paint artist and illustrator for the New Deal’s Resettlement Administration, Ben Shahn made a second trip into the South. This time the government assigned him primarily to photograph (document) the new resettlement communities he pretty much ignored on his first trip, when images of destitute people had moved him more than the shiny new homes they would occupy in the coming months. The photos from his new assigment were to be upbeat and show happy new homeowners. But Ben Shahn, true to form, saw the irony. The government bureaucrats failed to grasp that houses laid out on a grid could not replace the homes people had lived in for generations. Moving into new dwellings would not necessarily produce elation, but bring on grief for lost traditions and places. Ben Shahn’s photographs captured those feelings. Alabama 1937 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Young musicians at Skyline Farms, Alabama] 1937 Cabinet maker, Skyline Farms, Alabama 1937 North Carolina 1937 Child musicians at Asheville, North Carolina 1937 [Untitled photos, possibly related to: Jeeter Gentry, Elmer Thompson and Fiddlin' Bill Hensley, Asheville, North Carolina] 1937 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Aunt Samantha Baumgarner [i.e. Bumgarner], fiddler, banjoist, guitarist, North Carolina, Asheville] 1937 Sunday school, Penderlea Homesteads, North Carolina 1937 Last stop Pennsylvania 1937 Return to coal country [Untitled photo, possibly related to: ...salvaging coal from the slag heaps, Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania] 1937 Practicing for the Westmoreland Fair, Pennsylvania 1937