Color Photos from The Great Depression

<p>Some fine and interesting early color photos of tough times past.<br>

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3486435/Stunning-color-photos-Great-Depression.html</p>

<p>I've downloaded quite a few of the ones in that article from the Library Of Congress several years ago. Kodachrome was quite rich and sharp looking back in those days.</p>

<p>Geez! From some of the outdoor farmer scenes even daylight was dark during the depression. Just kidding!</p>

<p>I've seen a number of these before, especially those from the Rutland State Fair, of which there were a pretty large series, I think. </p>

<p>I don't remember the ones I've seen in the past being so contrasty and saturated, though. </p>

<p>These are photos that, for me, are content-based. The color, the sharpness, the saturation don't matter to me in the least. It's the stories I'm seeing, the humanity, the history, and the relevance of all of it to today's world. It's terribly wonderful to have such direct access to such significant times. Something about photos like these tells me that remembering and learning can walk hand in hand. The past still lives and the present and future should take note of that as we try to build a better world.</p>

<p>Thanks Sandy, for another very well chosen series of photos. Let's forget that you found it in a tabloid of the worse of its kind, Daily Mail!</p>

<p>Difficult to look at these fine photos of the Great depression by the end of the 30's, which had started ten years earlier with the Wall Street crash in 1928, without reflecting on our own times of world wide economic and financial distress. Only a World War took America out of the calamities of depression with millions of killed and wounded, and it took a Roosevelt to bring some answers to mass unemployment and poverty with social security, healthcare and labour camps. </p>

<p>Images of our very own inequalities, poverty rates and unemployment are there to shoot in our streets and country sides so that future generations can see what was happening after the financial crisis set off in 2007/8 - also in Wall Street! - and contaminated the rest of the world. </p>

<p>I like a lot of the color and aesthetically pleasing photos...err please me. </p>

Thanks for the link. My parents grew up during that time in North-central Mississippi.

<p>Sandy; thank you for sharing. This series fits nicely with a Kodachrome series from the WWII era. I'll have to find it to share it. These images remind me of the quotes from various attributions to the theme of "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Let us learn from the past lessons both hard and good, so we can make a better future. Also, as photographers, they remind us of the power in our art to describe and preserve for future generations the world we live in today.</p>

<p>Anders -- Glad you enjoyed the photos. I find that when sample media broadly across the spectrum of ideologies I can come closest to "the truth", which, of course is my personal view. I must challenge myself to find something to post that doesn't provide you with a "speaking platform." ;-)<br>

Fred G -- what was the old quote, something like "those that are ignorant of history are bound to repeat its mistakes."<br>

Mike, you are welcome!</p>

 

<p>David -- typing at the same time "great minds" ho, ho.<br>

Thanks for your input! Sandy</p>

<p>Sandy, I don't need a "speaking platform".<br>

What I do, is to try to "read" the photos in the context they were shot, with the knowledge we have got today. I furthermore, always try to make photos relevant for me (us!) here and now in our present time.<br>

What do these photos of the American depression in the 30's tell about our present situation and what do they give as message to photographers of our time? Such photos, you linked up to, should never, as far as I see it - you might disagree, Sandy - be appreciated as images in a vacuum. They are documents from a time near by, just a generation or two ago, and they look worrisome of something you could shoot in your backyard, or go to Greece, for example, to find on a nationwide level. <br>

Nothing politically incorrect to be found in thinking it, or even writing it here on Photonet, I hope.</p>

<p>Anders -- In my "backyard", there are people who work hard for very little when they could choose to work not at all for a good deal more in benefits. Those who take the benefits might call themselves poor. Those who work for their living are proud of it and do not believe they are poor. Of course, that is in rural Montana, "The Last Best Place".<br>

History is a continuum, some even advocate a wave theory, I subscribe to that to some degree. I do take the images both in view of their historical importance and artistic value -- they stand on their own, and are less subject to revisionism. </p>

<p>It's an interesting perspective you have, Sandy, that would read into these photos a desire to pit working families against welfare-recipient families. That's not what I see. I see poverty and its ramifications and nothing about the photos encourages me to lay blame at the feet of some people over others. Can you tell us what, in the photos, leads to your opining about working folks vs. welfare recipients? I'd be very interested in what, exactly, you're seeing, speaking of revisionism or at least wild-eyed fantasy.</p>

<p>Fred G -- not pitting one against the other, just describing a particular , possibly local, work ethic and mindset. I was responding specifically to Anders "shoot in my backyard" comment. There are, and always be people who need help, and they should receive it. That there are those who can qualify for assistance, but choose to do otherwise is the conundrum.</p>

<p>I saw these photos on exhibit at the Library of Congress in 2005. I was actually in town to see an exhibit of Irving Penn's platinum prints at the National Gallery...very nice bonus!</p>

<p>" There are, and always be people who need help, and they should receive it. That there are those who can qualify for assistance, but choose to do otherwise is the conundrum".</p>

<p>Thanks for posting the link, Sandy. Potent photos and potent colours which enhance the viewing experience.</p>

<p>I struggle to understand why anyone would make a life choice to be poor. Perhaps there are some who enjoy being poor and living on welfare. However, I would think the majority of poor folk giving a helping hand would choose to better themselves.</p>

<p>One bad apple in a sack does not make them all bad.</p>

<div></div>

<p>The USA a land populated by poor immigrants escaping the poverty of Europe.</p>

<p>They were given a opportunity to better themselves and the rest is History...</p>

<p>I believe what Sandy is speaking to is a very real human condition: The absolute reality that human dignity and self-worth are encouraged and bolstered when people earn what they need through their own labors. When they cannot or will not do so, dignity is undermined and self-worth diminished. One of the great tragedies of the Depression, along with every other economic catastrophe, was that people willing and desirous of working to provide for the needs of themselves and their families were unable to do so. On the other hand, I know many people, even some of my relatives, who prefer to remain on the welfare rolls and receive public assistance, even when the unemployment rate locally is below 4%. This choice, facilitated and even encouraged by public policy, diminishes these people. I applaud Sandy's desire to recognize those who choose work over endless welfare. At the same time, I hope these and similar images remind us of those who are less fortunate, and encourage us to help them in ways that build their dignity and self worth, along with their abilities and opportunities to overcome poverty. Any policy or program that encourages individuals to see themselves as powerless, as victims, and as deserving of that which they have done nothing to earn, is hurtful and damaging to individuals and to societies. (Now I'll get down off my soap box.)</p>

<p>"On the other hand, I know many people, even some of my relatives, who prefer to remain on the welfare rolls and receive public assistance, even when the unemployment rate locally is below 4%."</p>

<p>The system should be able to deal with those individuals and not give them a free ride to the land of poverty. However, unemployment, lack of opportunity, dampens the human spirit and folk become resigned to that lifestyle....they lose hope.</p>

<p>The scary though is that everyone on welfare is a scrounger and that becomes a public perception.</p>

<p>Chop of their heads said the Queen of Diamonds.</p>

<p>There by the grace of God, go I.</p>

<p>Of course the media concentrates on the poor and their laziness being on welfare. But they forget to mention the large cooperation's that pay little or no tax. And of course pay minimum (if you are lucky) wage and exploit folk in less developed countries.... </p>

<p>Two sides to every coin.</p>

<p>"and exploit folk in less developed countries...."</p>

<p>Taking away work opportunities for employment, for folk on welfare, in their own country. </p>

<p>Just a few thoughts.</p>

<p>Truly, I believe a great deal of this is about how a person was raised, and life experiences. <br>

Both my Grandfathers told me about their experiences in the Great Depression. One, a relatively recent immigrant, came here with very little, worked hard in small businesses, eventually his own, then lost most everything in '29. By the time he died in the '50's, he left my Grandmother enough to live nicely for a quarter of a century. My other Grandfather, from an older family, explained it this way. "In those times, you turned your hand to any work you could get -- if you waited for a position in your profession or trade, your family'ld likely be hungry."<br>

You do your best, work, you earn for your family, and try to do some good along the way, or at least little harm. I've turned my hand to a lot of different jobs in my life, learned from all of them, and still continue to try to and do the same. Just fundamentals, but they need to be taught, reinforced, and followed if you expect to succeed.</p>

<p>"In those times, you turned your hand to any work you could get -- if you waited for a position in your profession or trade, your family'ld likely be hungry."</p>

<p>Sorry, but you are basically implying that other members of humanity have failed compared to your superior genetic line. You are implying that others would, will not turn their hand to any work! Can you offer any data to prove your thesis? Or, is this just about about gesture and implication...</p>

<p>Obviously you are trying to prove that a large proportion of humanity is lazy worthless.</p>

<p>Look back in History to others who had the same rhetoric.</p>

<p>Allen, that is silly. Read into it what you care to. Simply actual family history. <br>

Nurture and nature in balance.<br>

Done now!</p>