PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE NEW DEAL: 1935-44

Recognizing the power of visual culture, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration mobilized photography to document American life and generate support for New Deal programs. From 1935 to 1944, the Farm Security Administration and its predecessor created an enormous pictorial record of 175,000 black and white negatives. This lecture examines images by Dorothea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott, Walker Evans, and others to explore how photography, far from a neutral and objective medium, communicated specific cultural messages intended to foster empathy for rural subjects and support for unprecedented government programs.