Ryerson University Digital Commons @ Ryerson Theses and dissertations 1-1-2012 The nitU ed States Farm Security Administration- Office Of War Information Archive: A Latent Nexus Of Truth About The ewN Deal Era Monika E. Berenyi Ryerson University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.ryerson.ca/dissertations Part of the Photography Commons Recommended Citation Berenyi, Monika E., "The nitU ed States Farm Security Administration-Office Of War Information Archive: A Latent Nexus Of Truth About The eN w Deal Era" (2012). Theses and dissertations. Paper 1270. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Ryerson. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ryerson. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE UNITED STATES FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION-OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION ARCHIVE: A LATENT NEXUS OF TRUTH ABOUT THE NEW DEAL ERA A Thesis in support of the database documentary: American Document www.americandocument.org by Monika Erzsebet Berenyi A Thesis presented to Ryerson University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in the Program of Documentary Media Exhibition American Document 1935 - 1944 I.M.A Gallery 80 Spadina Avenue, Suite #305 May 30th - June 16th Opening Reception: June 7th, 6-10pm Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2012 © Monika Erzsebet Berenyi 2012 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this Thesis. This is a true copy of the Thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this Thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this Thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my Thesis may be made electronically available to the public. Monika Erzsebet Berenyi ii Abstract The United States Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Archive: A Latent Nexus of Truth About the New Deal Era Master of Fine Arts (2012) Monika Erzsebet Berenyi MFA Documentary Media, Ryerson University Since the conclusion of World War II, the ethos of the Roosevelt administration (1933-1945) and the achievements of the New Deal era have been celebrated by official rhetoric. American Document is a dynamic storytelling platform which deconstructs the validity of this long-sustained authority in the United States. Between 1935 and 1944, the United States Resettlement Administration (1935-1937), Farm Security Administration (1937-1942), and Office of War Information (1942-1944) contributed to the capture of a panoramic portrait of America in the form of a photographic survey. Collectively, these photographs constitute the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information archive, and impart an unparalleled documentary account of the New Deal era. This Thesis engages archival evidence to question and illuminate how state socialism was imposed on an unsuspecting people at the expense of individual liberty, free enterprise, and the ebb and flow of the American dream. iii Dedication In memory of Paul Vanderbilt (1905-1992) Paul Vanderbilt was an artist, curator, and archivist who devoted his professional career to illuminating the metaphorical dimensions of photographs. His life’s work reveals the practice of an innovator, conscientiously engaged with the pedagogical value of visual languages and the discipline of history. His expression of experimental curatorial and archiving techniques quietly revolutionized the ways in which we see and tell stories, and his contributions to the study of American history and photography are not yet fully known. Among his many achievements, Vanderbilt classified the FSA-OWI photographic survey of America into a dynamically functioning historical resource. It is my hope that the content expressed in this thesis paper and in American Document contributes to the greater perception of the distinctive context within which Vanderbilt cultivated his practice. iv Acknowledgements The realization of American Document is a reflection of Ryerson University’s dedication to the cultivation of dynamic forms of intellectual expression, technological advancement, and enlightenment. I would like to formally acknowledge Ryerson University for generously supporting my artistic and academic development throughout the duration of my MFA studies. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Blake Fitzpatrick, whose voice of encouragement has served as a constant source of inspiration and strength since the inception of my interest to study at Ryerson. I would also like to herewith convey my immeasurable appreciation for the professors who composed my thesis advisory committee: Don Snyder, David Bouchard, and David Tucker. Thank you to all of you for your caring mentorship, patience, and unfailing belief in my art, in the spirit of crescat scientia, vita excolatur. I would also like to acknowledge the Ryerson University Documentary Media faculty at large, whose selfless dedication to the field of education and instruction on a broad range of subjects contributed to the final expression of American Document. I also wish to express my indebtedness to the librarians of the Prints and Photographs Division at the US Library of Congress. Their genuine contributions and scholarly guidance offered crucial assistance in many matters. I would like to especially acknowledge Barbara Natanson for her ardent enthusiasm and meticulous extension of specialized knowledge on the subject of the FSA- OWI archive. Finally, I wish to extend my heartfelt appreciation to my parents and to my dearest friend, Christine Cserti-Gazdewich for their steadfast support and undying confidence in my artistic journey. v TABLE OF CONTENTS There Were the Years 1935 - 1944 by M. Berenyi 1 INTRODUCTION 3 AMERICAN DOCUMENT: CONTENT 5 I. The Regime of Power: The Roosevelt Administration and the New Deal Era II. The FSA-OWI Archive: A Product of the Regime of Power AMERICAN DOCUMENT: FORM 12 I. Multilinear Narrative Structure II. Composite Database Design AMERICAN DOCUMENT: METHODOLOGY 20 I. Historicizing Syntax in the FSA-OWI Archive The New Deal Cultural Aesthetic Roy Emerson Stryker’s Vision of America Paul Vanderbilt’s Classification System II.Writing the Narrative AMERICAN DOCUMENT IN THE DOCUMENTARY TRADITION 34 I. Documentary Treatments of New Deal Era History CONCLUSION 40 APPENDICES 44 A. AMERICAN DOCUMENT: MULTILINEAR NARRATIVE STRUCTURE 45 B. VANDERBILT CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM: THE WORKING PICTURE FILE 50 C. HISTORICAL SECTION PHOTOGRAPHIC UNIT SAMPLE SHOOTING SCRIPT: ROY 54 STRYKER TO RUSSELL LEE AND ARTHUR ROTHSTEIN, FEBRUARY 19TH, 1942 ENDNOTES 55 BIBLIOGRAPHY 60 vi There Were the Years 1935 to 1944 1935 Ours is the spirit of a careworn vessel. Misery is resilient. We’re spelling ourselves In a land of dust With wrecks for chariots. 1936 We gather in church and pray for rain. Clouds spring, then vanish quickly; Wind answers, erasing the sun with lightening speed. In the harvest of our sorrows Darkness cradles at midday. 1937 Freedom is bait and there’s no place like home. The radio puts us all to sleep, oh my beautiful A MER ICA. I’d rather smoke cigarettes in Chicago than be forgotten. 1938 Somewhere deep in the Mississippi Delta Black gales howl and juke joints stir. If you blow into the Ozarks You’ll meet the mountain children there- A lot which has remained the same. 1939 On days dead dry We drove the Mother Road, Leaving cattle country far behind. Mays Avenue Camp, Oklahoma- One sad place in history. 1 1940 The cotton mills of Georgia Are sweating prayers to gods; Some folks play cards In the center of town, Wearing crisp white gloves. 1941 Stop for service, boys! Pearl Harbor Liberty ships Christmas 1941 - we’ll do our part. Victory also rests on ladies and gardens. 1942 Southerners waltz in twilight hours; Only some are saved. Plantations rest on Sundays and Iowa is a proverb. And the Japanese? Nobody really knows. 1943 Coal, butter, sugar, paper, tin, brass, honey, copper, hosiery...rationed. People live in abandoned churches. Beauty parlor signs are scarce. Crossing lines on the Million Dollar Highway, Colorado beams my frontier dream. 1944 In Tombstone Arizona, If you die, you’re dead, that’s all. The freight train stops at a sliding to cool its drawn wheels. There’s a first-class God leading us all ....down this Road. By M. Berenyi 2 INTRODUCTION Since the conclusion of World War II, the ethos of the Roosevelt administration and the legacy of the New Deal have been crystallized in the American consciousness in social, historical, and national terms. American Document is a work that provokes the audience to consider and assess the complex history of the New Deal era from a revisionist perspective, within the context of a dynamic database documentary on web platform. Through an inventive manipulation of archival photographs drawn from the historic FSA-OWI archive, and an adaptation of the third-person plural narration technique, American Document challenges the celebrated paternalistic myth and legacy of the Roosevelt administration through the delivery of an irrefutable dynamic visual language. The work’s master narrative, designed to confront the legacy of the New Deal with archival evidence, is delivered in the form of a choral voice composed of the artist’s editorial reading of the FSA-OWI archive and a database of 2,500 archival photographs. Through the mechanics of a randomly modulated algorithm and database aesthetics, American Document expresses the extraordinary value of documentary photography to the practice of history while unfolding the existence of latent truth in the FSA-OWI archive. Conceptualizing American Document as a database documentary which functions as a platform for interpreting and revising the historical record, demands a discussion on the controversies associated with the New Deal era and the ethos of the Roosevelt administration.