"If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera." ~Lewis Hines

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  One of the projects of the RA and FSA was to hire photographers to document the poverty of the rural areas.  The photographers chosen for this task were: Charlotte Brooks, Esther Bubley, Marjory Collins, Harold Corsini, Arnold Eagle, Theodor Jung, Sol Libsohn, Carl Mydans, Martha McMillan Roberts, Edwin Rosskam, Louise Rosskam, Richard Saunders, Ben Shahn, Roy Stryker, Jack Delano, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Gordon Parks, Arthur Rothstein, John Vachon, and Marion Post Wolcott.  Some of these photographers were more successful than others but all helped to document this trying time in our nation’s history.

             There were over five thousand artists that were involved in the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) photography project, about half of these photographers were from New York.  The average pay of the artists was between $23 and $35 per week.  “The artists waited on line each week to receive their checks and this waiting line very often became an opportunity for the artists to socialize with and meet one another.” 

            Most of the resulting pictures were in black and white with a few color photographs surfacing towards the end of the assignment.  Hundreds of thousands of photographs were taken during this time and many of them have become well known for their artistry.  There are many aspects of a photograph that we forget to take into account whenever we look at them.  Where was the photographer standing?  Why was the photograph taking from this angle? Why did the photographer choose these subjects?  How many photographs were taking during the set and where did this one fall?  The photographs are interpretations of the photographers who took them.  In each photograph we see a small piece of the photographer as well.  Photographs are historical evidence that remind us of our past. 

            Many photographers asked permission before they took pictures of anyone.  Some people give their permission, but later become enraged whenever the photographer becomes famous for their photograph.  One well known example of this is Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” photograph.  The subject of the photograph was Florence Thompson, a mother of seven.  Lange took six exposures of Thompson and her children at the “pea pickers camp.”  She submitted five shots to her publisher and withheld one because Thompson’s sixteen year old daughter was in the photograph.  Roosevelt intended to use the photographs to entice people to donate to the poor and help them understand what others were going through.  He wanted to put a face to poverty.  Lange was afraid that a photograph of a mother and her sixteen year daughter would send the wrong message.  She worried that people would assume that she was doing well if she were able to raise a child to the age of sixteen in these conditions. 

            The “Migrant Mother” photograph has become a poster image for the FSA.  It is one of the most popular images from Lange’s gallery as well.  This photograph helped to shape Lange’s future in photography.  She made a great deal of money from this shot and Thompson was enraged by this.  The image that was intended to help her and her family was instead helping Lange.  “I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing.  After all, you are taking some of their soul.”  Mary Ellen Mark