Dorothea Lange: The Photographer as Agricultural Sociologist
Author(s): Linda Gordon
Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Dec., 2006), pp. 698-727
Published by: Organization of American Historians
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Dorothea Lange: The Photographeras
AgriculturalSociologist
Linda Gordon
Forsuggestions
onhowtousethisarticlein theU.S. history
seeour"Teachclassroom,
ingtheJAH"Webprojectat http://www.indiana.edu/-jah/teaching/.
To a startlingdegree,popular understandingof the Great Depression of the 1930s derivesfromvisual images,and among them,Dorothea Lange's are the most influential.
Althoughmany do not know her name, her photographslive in the subconscious of
virtuallyanyonein theUnitedStateswho has anyconceptofthateconomicdisaster.Her
picturesexertedgreatforcein theirown time,helpingshape 1930s and 1940s Popular
Frontrepresentational
and artisticsensibility,
because the Farm SecurityAdministration
her
the
distributed
(FSA), employer,
photographsaggressively
throughthe mass media. If
film
with
watch
the
Wrath
a
her
collectionof
you
photographsnextto you,
TheGrapesof
you will see the influence.'Lange's commitmentto making her photographyspeak to
mattersofinjusticewas hardlyunique-thousands of artists,writers,
dancers,and actors
weretryingto connectwith thevibrantgrass-rootssocial movementsof the time.They
formeda culturalwingof the PopularFront,a politicsof liberal-Left
unityin supportof
theNew Deal.
The FSAphotography
thesocial and economic
projectaimedto examinesystematically
relationsof Americanagriculturallabor.Yet none of the scholarshipabout that unique
visualprojecthas made farmworkerscentralto itsanalysis.One consequenceoftheomission has been underestimating
the policyspecificity
of the FSAsand Lange'sexpose. We
understandherwork,and thatof thewhole FSAphotographyproject,differently
ifwe see
it as a contestedpart of New Deal farmpolicy.PuttingLange'sphotographyback into
thatcontextmakesthesharpnessof itscriticaledge moreapparent.FSAphotographywas
a politicalcampaign.The FSAwas at theleftedge of the Departmentof Agriculture,
and
itsphotography
was
at
the
left
of
the
not
The
chalFSA.
project
edge
photographers only
lengedan entireagricultural
politicaleconomy,but triedalso to illustratethe racialsystemin whichit operated-a systemit also reinforced.
Some politiciansand scholarshad
censuredsouthernracism,but no prominentracialliberalsaddressedthe morecomplex
Linda Gordonis professor
ofhistoryat New YorkUniversity.
She would liketo thankGeorgeChauncey,JessGilreadersfortheJournalofAmerican
bert,BetsyMayer,Rondal Partridge,
SallyStein,and thediscerning
Historyfor
theirhelp.
ReadersmaycontactGordonat [email protected].
' Her mostfamous
picture,oftenknownas "MigrantMother,"had, by thelate 1960s, been used in approximatelyten thousandpublisheditems,resultingin millionsof copies, in the estimationof PopularPhotography
Administration
magazine.HowardM. Levinand KatherineNorthrup,DorotheaLange:FarmSecurity
Photographs,
dir.JohnFord (Twentieth
1935-1939 (2 vols.,Glencoe,1980), I, 42. TheGrapesofWrath,
Century-Fox,1940).
698
ofAmericanHistory
TheJournal
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
December2006
as Agricultural
The Photographer
Sociologist
699
but equallyunjustrace relationsin theWest. Since most people of color in the western
UnitedStatesat thattimelivedin ruralareas,the DepartmentofAgriculture's
photographyprojectprovideda unique opportunityto make themvisibleto urbanitesand nonwesterners.
Even the genderrelationsrevealedamong thesephotographicsubjectswere
lessconventionalthanmainstreamdiscoursewould suggest.
Dorothea Lange was exemplaryin both meanAmong documentaryphotographers,
a
of
the
word:
her
work
exemplified prevailingstyleand, as a premierpractitioner
ings
commitmentwas at once typicalforcultural
of thatstyle,influencedit. Her progressive
frontdocumentaristsand also unusuallytargeted,because she was promotingspecific
New Deal policies.2She eventuallyreceivedgreatacclaim(mostof it,unfortunately,
posthumous) as a masterartphotographer;but the agriculturalreformto which she was so
passionatelycommitteddid not (and perhapscould not) materialize.Her photography
thusalso exposesthelimitationsof even a notablyprogressive
partof theNew Deal's agricultural
policy.
That Lange, a city-born(Hoboken) citydweller(San Francisco),became an ace documentaryphotographerthroughher work on ruralAmericadid not make her unique
Theyweremainlyof northernurban background,a remarkamong FSAphotographers.
But theiroriable proportionof themJewish(fiveof the elevenmajor photographers).3
saw
as
a
rural
well
as
weakness.
Because
been
a strength
societywith
they
ginsmayhave
vistas,theytook nothingforgranted,and because they
eyesunhabituatedto agricultural
neededto learn,theywerebetterable to teachothers.Lange executedtheFSA'S
assignment
thananyotherindividualphotographer-becauseshe traveledto more
morethoroughly
regionsthandid theothers,becauseshe was marriedto and oftentraveledwithPaul Taylor,an agriculture
expertand FSAinsider,and above all because she was based in Califorin manywaysthefutureofAmericanagriculture.
which
nia,
represented
laborrelationsprevailedin the
To simplify
a complexmap,foursystemsofagricultural
in
North
the
and
United States:familyfarming
Midwest,sharecroppingin the South,
tenantfarmingon the southernplains,and migrantwage labor in the West. In all reproductionwith absenteeownergions agriculturewas movingtowardindustrial-scale
from
a different
transformation
in
the
each
but
startingpoint and
began
ship,
region
neverdominated
the
American
a
at
different
ideal,
velocity.Familyfarming,
proceeded
in the Southeast,the semiaridsouthernplains, or California.In the Southeast,slavery
had builta plantationeconomy,whichthenadaptedto a technically"free"labor forceby
In thedrysouthern
compellingex-slavesand manypoor whitesto become sharecroppers.
2
of the Popular
theartsproductioncharacteristic
MichaelDenning used theterm"culturalfront"to identify
Frontpoliticalallianceof the late 1930s and early1940s. Michael Denning, TheCulturalFront:TheLaboringof
dicAmericanCulturein theTwentieth
(London, 1997). PopularFront,in turn,nameda particular
strategy
Century
themto seekalliancewith
theworld,directing
tatedin 1935 by theCominternto Communistpartiesthroughout
otherpartiesof theLeft.But in theUnitedStatesa popularmovementtowardliberal-Left
unityin supportof the
New Deal precededthe Communistpartystrategy
by severalyears.This PopularFrontwas a movement,not an
but thatdid not make
and ofteninternally
and as a resultitwas complex,heterogeneous,
conflicted,
organization,
it lessinfluential.
3ArthurRothstein,Carl Mydans,Ben Shahn,JackDelano, and EdwinRosskamarethefivemajorJewishphoAlso JewishwereEstherBubley,Louise Rosskam,CharlesFennoJacobs,ArthurSiegel,and Howard
tographers.
wereformedas adultsthroughurbanexperience:DorotheaLange in New
Liberman.All themajorphotographers
Yorkand San Francisco;JohnCollierJr.and RussellLee in San Francisco;WalkerEvans,ArthurRothstein,Ben
Shahn,and MarionPostWolcottin New Yorkand Paris;Carl Mydansin Bostonand New York;andJackDelano in
weresouth(FSA)administrators
manykeyFarmSecurityAdministration
Philadelphia.Unlikethephotographers,
ern:WillAlexanderand C. B. Baldwin,forexample.
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700
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
plains,land speculationhad escalatedland prices,forcingmanysmallholdersinto debt
and thenforeclosure;
smallfarmsremained,but increasingly
land was owned by big lendersand workedby tenants.In CaliforniaMexican rancherswerethe originalagriculturists.But in the earlytwentiethcentury,federalfundsimportedwaterforirrigationand
drainedmarshlands,therebysubsidizingan agricultural
economydominatedby big-business growersdependenton migrantfarmworkers-mainlypeople of color and oftenof
foreignbirth.4Lange was the only FSAphotographerto coverall threenon-familyfarm
regions,and as a resultshe documentedboth the most "backward"and the most "advanced"agricultural
labor relations.
It was a conjunctureof Americanpolitical structureand key individualsthat made
ruralAmericathe focusof the biggest-ever
governmentphotographyproject.As a result,
America'simagesof the depressionare moreruralthantheyotherwisewould have been.
But theruralfocuswas consistentwithNew Deal politics.Some of themost progressive
New Dealers werelocated in the FSA.The agriculturalsociologistJessGilberthas shown
thattheydivided roughlyinto two groups:agrarianintellectualswho maintainedtheir
faithin thefamily-farm
ideal and urbanliberalswho favoreda moreplannedagricultural
theprotractedagricultural
the
1930s
economy.By
early
depressionhad moved the problem of farmtenancyto the top of both groups' agendas. Calling on a rhetoricderived
fromJeffersonianism,
which co-existedunPopulism,and utopian communitarianism,
with
a
statist
commitment
to
economic
easily
planning,theyaspiredto nothingless than
seriousland reform-that,iffulfilled,
would have amountedto theNew Deal's mostfundamentalredistribution
of powerand wealth.5
But in the FSA,thefamily-farm
ideal dominated,operationalizedthroughprogramsof
resettlement
and loans to farmfamilies.The FSAsoughtpoliticalsupportforthisredistributionistagenda througha populistnationalismcharacteristic
of PopularFrontsensibilI
use
term
in
a
the
nationalism"
of
sense,
ity.
"populist
generic
opposingpoliticaldomination by big businessor otherelites.Its senseof "thepeople" privilegedtownand country
as opposed to cityfolk,and itsnationalismidentifiedthosefolkas thequintessentialcitizens.Americannationalismin thisperiodoftenmanifesteditselfthroughruraland smalltownimagery,
howeveroutdated,and thisimageryskewedAmericans'understandingof
theiractuallyexistingpolityand societyas well as theirfuture.6
The FSA'sphotography
was
to
not
of
onlyDepartment Agriculture
project
supposed promote
programsbut also
and therewerehundreds,ifnotthousands,ofdifferent
is,ofcourse,a formoftenancy,
4 Sharecropping
tenancy
but in generaltherewas moresharecropping
in theSoutheastand moreshareor renttenancyin the
arrangements,
and plainstenantson averagehad morerightsand economic
plains.Tenancycontracts
rangedin theirrequirements,
chancesthansoutherntenants,and southernwhitesmorethansouthernblacks.See JonathanM. Wiener,"Class
Structure
and EconomicDevelopmentin theAmericanSouth, 1865-1955," AmericanHistoricalReview,84 (Oct.
theLand: TheTransformation
and RiceCultures
since1880
1979), 970-92; PeteDaniel, Breaking
ofCotton,Tobacco,
Lost:TheAmericanSouth,1920-1960 (Baton Rouge, 1987).
(Urbana,1985); JackTempleKirby,RuralWorlds
of theFSAis indebtedbothto JessGilbert'sscholarship
and to conversations
withhim.Jess
5 My interpretation
of Progressives
Two Group Portraits
in
Gilbert,"EasternUrban Liberalsand MidwesternAgrarianIntellectuals:
theNew Deal DepartmentofAgriculture,"
74 (Spring2000), 162-80; JessGilbertand Alice
History,
Agricultural
O'Connor, "Leavingthe Land Behind: StrugglesforLand Reformin U.S. FederalPolicy,1933-1965," in Who
OwnsAmerica?
overProperty
ed. HarveyM. Jacobs(Madison,1998), 114-30; JessGilbertand
Social Conflict
Rights,
SteveBrown,"Alternative
Land ReformProposalsin the 1930s: The NashvilleAgrarians
and theSouthernTenant
Farmers'Union,"Agricultural
is also indebtedto SidneyBald55 (Oct. 1981), 351-69. My interpretation
History,
and Politics:TheRiseand DeclineoftheFarmSecurity
Administration
win,Poverty
(Chapel Hill, 1968).
6 See BarbaraMelosh,
Culture:Manhoodand Womanhood
in New Deal PublicArt and Theater
Engendering
Melosh subjectsotherimagesof farmfamilies
1991). Althoughshe does not considerphotography,
(Washington,
in New Deal-era muralsto a genderanalysisthatfitsFSAphotography.
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
701
inCalifornia.
Mother
ofsevenchildren.
peapickers
Figure1."Destitute
Agethirty-two.
Nipomo,California."Feb. 1936. PhotobyDorotheaLange.Courtesy
LibraryofCongress,
Printsand Photographs
Division,FSA/OWI
Collection,
LC-USF34-T01-009058-CDLC.
a New Deal visionforruralAmerica,a difficult
assignmentbecauseof theincoherenceof
thatvision.The projectreaffirmed
romantic,
family-farm
ideologythroughitsfrequently
to
a
life
its
condemnaand
rural
and
picturesqueapproach
"simple"
community-spirited
tionof plantationand industrialagriculture.
Lange'shusband,PaulTaylor-who got her
theFSAjob-was one oftheagrarianintellectuals
and a believerin familyfarming
despite
his intimateknowledgeofCalifornia's
industrialagriculture
and theoverwhelming
political powerof itscaptains.
ExaminingLange'sworkwithan agricultural
emphasisalso challengessome of theapThe extraordinary
praisalsofherphotography.
popularityofsome ofherphotographshas
decontextualized
and universalizedthem,categorizedthemas art,and therebydiverted
attentionfromtheiralmost social-scientific
significance.Partlybecause of the iconizationofher"MigrantMother"photograph,she becameidentified
above all withthestory
ofwhiteOkies, drivenfromthedustbowl into California,theirimagefixedtextually
by
(See figure1. All imagesare accompanied
JohnSteinbeck'sbest-sellingGrapesofWrath.7
by Lange'soriginalcaption,exceptfigure8.) In fact,sheworkedleastin thedroughtarea
and morein Californiaand theSoutheast.
victims.Michele
7Oddly enough,"MigrantMother"has cometo standin forurbanas wellas ruraldepression
L. Landis,"Fate,Responsibility,
and 'Natural'DisasterRelief:Narrating
theAmericanWelfareState,"Law and So33 (no. 2, 1999), 308. JohnSteinbeck,TheGrapesofWrath(New York,1939).
cietyReview,
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702
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
Lange'sprojecthas also been veiled by genderedclich6s.Criticshave oftenread the
in a way said to be characteristic
of
strongemotionalcontentof herworkas instinctive,
A "natural"feminineintuitiveness
her
in
femalesensibility.
these
underlay photography
... photographedspontaneously.... "8
accounts."Dorothea Lange lived instinctively
At othertimesshe is describedas a piece of whitephotosensitive
paper or "like an unexposed film,"onto whichlightand shadowmarkedimpressions.'Her photographsconsist
of portraits,a formoftendescribedas particularly
feminine,consisdisproportionately
tentwiththe observationthatwomen are uniquelyinterestedin personalityand private
emotions.Her FSAcolleagueEdwin Rosskamcalled her "a kind of a saint."'1The critic
George Elliottexpressedthe common imaginingof femaleartistsas passivelyreceptive:
"For an artistlike Dorothea Lange the makingof a great,perfect,anonymousimage is a
trickof grace,about whichshe can do littlebeyondmakingherselfavailableforthatgift
of grace.""
These genderedand insultingassessmentsof Lange'sphotographyinformthefrequent
criticismof herworkas sentimental.William Stott,Maren Stange,and JacquelineEllis,
forexample,make thatcritique.That she showed people who workedwith-and lived
off--theearthratherthanin factoriesor officesno doubt contributedto thewhiffof sena sentimentalview of farmtimentality-eventhoughone aim of herworkwas to falsify
with
associate
sentimentality maternalismparticularly,
ing. Critics,moreover,commonly
it
a
review
female
foible.
The
ofher 1966 Museum of Modern Artshow
Aperture
making
hersuccessto her"maternalconcernforthingsof thisworld"and to "creating
attributed
artist'sawareness."'2 Lange'sboss
universalformsof human feelingthroughan instinctive
to her not only as a motherbut as a matriarch.'3Many
referred
at the FSA,Roy Stryker,
shareda conservative
view of theproperdivisionof labor in photography.
photographers
WalkerEvans,forexample,talkedof "photographing
babies"as a synonymforsellingout
But the tendencytowardsentimentality
in FSAphotographyderived
artisticintegrity."4
fromtheagency'sdriveto ennoblethepoor and downtroddenand was evidentin photographsby both men and women.
Of course,thereweregenderedsourcesof Lange'sphotography-how could therenot
or "natural"than masculinity.Lange, farfrom
be? But femininity
is no moreinstinctive
was
an
assertive
visual
intellectual,superblydisciplinedand self-conpassivelyreceptive,
to develop a photographythatcould be maximallycomscious,workingsystematically
municativeand revealing.To do this,she acquired considerableknowledgeabout agriculturallabor.
to DorotheaLange,byDorotheaLange (New York,1981), 5.
Cox, introduction
8 Christopher
Museum,ed.
byThereseHeyman,in DorotheaLange:Photographsfrom
9WestonNaefinterview
theJ.Paul Getty
JudithKeller(Los Angeles,2002), 101.
10Edwin Rosskamand Louise Rosskaminterviewby RichardK. Doud, Aug. 3, 1965, transcript,
pp. 30-31
ofAmericanArt,Smithsonian
Institution,
(Archives
D.C.).
Washington,
" MuseumofModernArt,DorotheaLange(New York,1977), 7.
12William
America(New York,1973). MarenStange,Symbols
and Thirties
Stott,Documentary
Expression
ofldeal
inAmerica,1890-1950 (Cambridge,Eng., 1989). JacquelineEllis,SilentWitPhotography
Life:SocialDocumentary
Womenin theUnitedStates(BowlingGreen,1998). Aperture
nesses:
reviewquoted
Representations
ofWorking-Class
in CatherineL. Preston,"In Retrospect:
The Constructionand Communicationof a NationalVisual Memory"
of Pennsylvania,
(Ph.D. diss.,University
1995), 264-65.
13Ben ShahnquotationfromBen Shahninterview
by RichardK. Doud, Aug. 3, 1965, transcript,
p. 13 (Arinterview
chivesofAmericanArt);RoyStryker
by Doud, Oct. 17, 1963, transcript,
p. 8, ibid.
14 Shahninterview,
23-24.
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as Agricultural
The Photographer
Sociologist
703
was createdin April 1935 as an
The FSA,firstcalled the Resettlement
Administration,
fromthe DeautonomousNew Deal agency,a countermoveto a purgeof progressives
of
as
In
the
Rexford
of
undersecretary
Tugwell,
partment Agriculture. initiating agency,
of
treat
as
a
America's
was
to
laborers
part
working
agricultural
agriculture, attempting
class.15The DepartmentofAgricultureneverhad a divisiondevotedto labor-a muchrepeatedjoke in the FSAwas thatthedepartmentknew how manyhogs therewere in the
UnitedStatesbut not how manyfarmworkers-and had long been dominatedby large
farmowners.'"So Tugwell hiredphotographyenthusiastRoy Strykerto createa more
who
inclusiveimage of Americanfarmers.Strykerassembleda groupof photographers
withpassionatedemocraticsympathiesand
collectivelycombinedexcellentphotography
thenallowed themconsiderablelatitudewiththeircameras.The projectcreateda visual
encyclopedianot only of the depression'sruraldevastationbut also of ruralwork and
life.It ultimately
producedseveralhundredthousandphotographs,untilthe projectwas
abolishedin 1942.~7
AlthoughneitherTugwellnor Strykerintendedit,the FSAphotographyprojectsomefundedartsprojects,and thiscontexthas veiled its
timesappearsas one ofseveralfederally
It is truethatit sharedwithotherNew Deal artsa populistnationalfocuson agriculture.
Modiststyleand content,includingan emphasison the ruraland the representational.
urbanEuropeanimport,was discouraged,althoughphotogernism,thatquintessentially
raphersin particular,Lange included,experimentedwith it. Abstractartwas forbidden.
reachedeventheMuseum ofModernArt,whereHolgerCahill took over
Americanization
from
AlfredH. BarrJr.in 1932 and began to show Americanart; Lincoln
temporarily
Kirsteincuratedan exhibitofmurals,someofwhichenragedthetrustees.Thatorientation
also appearedin therusticregionalismso evidentin paintings,notablymurals,and in the
local guides.The New Deal artsprojectsaimed
WorksProgress
Administration-produced
in partto reversethedrainingof culturalresourcesto big citiesand decreasethe resultant
alienationoftheartistfromthe"people,"who presumablylivedin smallerpopulationcenters."We on theprojectno longerwork. .. isolatedfromsociety,"one artistproclaimed.
"We have a client.Our clientis theAmericanpeople." But thatartistwas Girolamo PicHis wordssymbolizedtheunresolvedtensionspacked into New
coli,an urbanimmigrant.
Deal nationalismabout what Americannesswas, and theyremindus that much of the
New Deal romancewithfarmsand smalltownswas an urbanproduct.'8
overcamethatromanticismto some degreeas a resultof Stryker's
FSAphotographers
insistencethattheylearnabout Americanagriculture.He fedthemreadingassignments,
15 TheResettlement
totheDepartment
ofAgriculture
andrenamed
FSAin 1937.
Administration
wastransferred
totheOffice
ofWarInformation
in 1942.Forsimplicity's
Thephotography
wastransferred
sake,inthisarproject
oftheFSA,
andPolitics,
toallthree
avatars
ticleI refer
81-83.
seeBaldwin,
as FSA.On thecreation
Poverty
16 Rosskam
interview
CalvinBenham
Baldwin
andRosskam
interview;
(mibyDoud,Feb.25, 1965,transcript
ofAmerican
reel3418) (Archives
crofilm:
Art).
andnegatives
thousand
forty
17Lange's
papersin theOaklandMuseumalsoincludeapproximately
negatives,
arehousedintheNational
herworkforother
Archives.
from
government
agencies
states
forAlaska,
wasoneWorks
Administration
plusvolumes
guideforeachoftheforty-eight
18There
Progress
butonlyfoururbanlocations-Erie,
theMinnesota
Arrowhead
Puerto
Rico,NewEngland,
country,
Pennsylvania,
Ohio.Girolamo
PiccoliquotedinJonathan
FedNewOrleans,
NewYorkCity,andCincinnati,
Harris,
Louisiana,
Culture:
inNewDealAmerica
eralArtandNational
(Cambridge,
Eng.,1995),58.
ofldentity
ThePolitics
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704
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
and lectures,orientingthemto ruralpovertyand crisis,not rusticbeautyor bustatistics,
colic peace.
Dorothea Lange foundherway to documentaryphotography
on herown. Born in 1895
intoa middle-classfamilyin Hoboken, New Jersey,
she migratedto San Franciscowhere,
from1918 to 1935, she earned a livingforherselfand her familyas a portraitphotographer.Her romantic,flattering,
individualizing,and slightlyunconventionalportraits
drewa prosperous,elite,high-culture
clientele.Marriedto a leadingWest Coast painter,
in
she
socialized
bohemian
artisticcircles.Her crowd was what we
Maynard Dixon,
would todaycall sociallyliberal,but not attunedto politics.That began to change as the
depressiondeepened,social protestmovementsgrew,and theartmarketplunged,leaving
withherdemandinghusband
manyartistspenniless.She grewimpatientsimultaneously
and her confinementto her portraitstudio. This restlessness,
coupled with the depression decline in her business,senther out to the streetsof San Franciscoto photograph
whatwas happening:homelessmen sleepingon parkbenches,crowdsliningup at relief
stations,strikersand the unemployeddemonstratingand sometimeseven battlingthe
police. Paul Taylor,an agriculturaleconomistat the Universityof California,Berkeley,
saw her photographsand employedher forthe CaliforniaState EmergencyReliefAdin 1935,thenmade surethatherphotographswerenoticedin Washington,
ministration
saw them,he recognizedtheirpowerand immediatelyhiredher.The
D.C. When Stryker
mostexperiencedoftheFSAphotographers
and theonlyone who did notworkout of the
she
continued
to
live in California.19
D.C.,
office,
Washington,
She divorcedDixon and marriedPaul Taylorin 1935, and in all herworkfromthen
on, her photographicsensibilityand strategywere indebtedto his political-intellectual
approach.Taylorhad studiedlabor economics underJohnCommons at the University
of Wisconsinand connectedwithPaul Kelloggand otherProgressive
Era social reformers at Hull House. In the traditionof FlorenceKelleyand Sophonisba Breckinridge,
he
combinedrigorousresearchwith public advocacy.He devoted himselfin the 1920s to
studyingMexican immigrationand labor in the United States,the firstAnglo scholarto
as an economist,he talkedwith,listenedto, and even
do so.20 As much an ethnographer
while
his
also
photographed subjects,
collectingdata about theirimmigrationand work
histories.He communicatedto Lange his quintessentially
faiththatuncoverProgressive
or
at
least
He
facts
would
that
the stateought
believed
better,policy.
producegood,
ing
to regulatethe labor marketand that policy should be made by well-educated,wellinformed,objectiveexperts.Since Taylorbelievedthathis dutiesas a social scientistincluded advocacyas well as investigation,
he also believed,as did manyotherProgressive
thatresearchshould be packagedand presentedso as to reacha broad public.
reformers,
He understoodjustwhatRoy Stryker
was tryingto do. So he deviseda researchplan that
DorotheaLangeand theCensored
19Linda Gordon and GaryY. Okihiro,eds., Impounded:
Imagesof apanese
AmericanInternment
(New York,2005), 5-45; Dorothea Lange, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange
(Sept. 13, 2006).
20 For a
biographicalsketchof Paul Taylor,see AmericanNationalBiography,
Supplement2, s.v. "Taylor,Paul
Also availablebysubscription
atAmerican
Schuster."
NationalBiography
Online,http://www.anb.org/.
Taylor'swere
studiesof evolvingMexicanAmerican-Mexicanimmigrant
ac"themostsensitiveand penetrating
relationships,"
Wallsand Mirrors:
MexicanAmericans,
MexicanImmigrants,
and thePoliticsofEthnicity
cordingto David Gutierrez,
1995), 64.
(Berkeley,
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as Agricultural
The Photographer
Sociologist
705
enabled him to travelwith Lange, interviewing,
explaining,takinghis own notes, and
out
pointing
photographicsubjects.
ofAmerreversedthehistoricaltrajectory
metaphorically
Lange'sphotographictrajectory
ican agriculture.She began in 1935 in California,wheremechanizationand industrial
weremostdeveloped,thentraveledto thesouthernplainswheremanytenant
agriculture
farmers
and remainingsmallholderswerebeingdevastated,and movedfromthereto the
southeasternstateswhereagricultureremainedmostprimitiveand the labor systemwas
at leastas brutalas thatin California'sfields.
The fundamental,
irreducibleproblemof laborsupplyforCalifornia'sagribusinesswas
thathuge inputsof workerswereneeded forshortspellsof time-typicallyat harvestwhileformost of theyearonlya tinyfractionof thatlabor forcecould do the necessary
labor.For example,in 1935, growersrequired198,000 hands in Septemberbut 46,000
In thefruitbusinesstheimbalancewas twiceas bad: 130,000 needed at peak,
in January.
farmlabor seemed essential.Farmworkerstraveled
Thus migratory
at
16,000 trough.21
the
the
various
harvestseasonsand remainedunemployedfor
state
following
throughout
monthsat a time.
As Lange began to documentthatsystem,her firstreactionwas horror."They were
... camped in an open field,withoutshelterof any kind.Motherpregnant,with5 starving children.Theywereeatinggreenonions,raw,and thatwas all theyhad."22Her photographsshow her response.Theirtents,lean-tos,and shacksare put togetherwith old
canvas,gunnysacks,cardboardor wooden boxes, scraps of linoleum and sheet metal.
The Mexican workershave woven brush,palm, and otherplant materialto makejacales
The main
(huts),and theseoftenprovidedbettercoverthan theAnglos' improvisations.
of
no
boxes.
There
are
course
no
no
furniture
is wooden
floors, insulation, screens,no
toilets.As theseagricultural
valleyshave littletreecover,thereis no way to relieveoneself
and thereis human excrementin what are effectively
discreetly,
backyards.Nearby,childrenplayin mud and women takewaterforcookingand washingfromrainpuddles and
ditches.Slightlyolderchildrenworkin thefields,othersloiter,depressed,withirrigation
or on the ground.
out shoes,otherssleep underragson filthymattresses
not
to
document
was
only
povertybut to show also the agricultural
Lange'sobjective
the
from
She
used
which
it
rhythmof the plowed rutsand ridgesand the
grew.
system
the
size
of
thefieldsin hershots.She includedtiny,farrowsofplantsto increasevisually
offfarmworkers,mules,and tractorsin thoseshotsto indicatethescale of thefarms.She
of thoseenterprises
whereworkersnevermetthe boss and did
showedthe impersonality
not knowmanyof theirco-workers.23
21
The unevendemandforlaborwas muchgreaterin Californiathanin, forexample,the Southeast,because
California's
relativefreedomfromweedsand pestsmeantthatitsfarmsneededlesslaborbeforeharvesttime.State
Laborin California(San Francisco,1936), 8.
ReliefAdministration
ofCalifornia,
Migratory
22 Dorothea
Lange,fieldnotes,DorotheaLangeArchive(Oakland Museum,Oakland,Calif.).
23 Forexample,DorotheaLange,"SalinasValley,California.LargeScale, CommercialAgriculture,"
Feb. 1939,
Collection(Printsand PhotographsDivision,Libraryof Congress,
LC-USF347-018899-E, FSA-OWI
photograph,
D.C.); DorotheaLange,"SalinasValley,California.FilipinoBoysThinningLettuce,"Feb. 1939, phoWashington,
tograph,LC-USF347-019432, ibid.The Libraryof Congressusesa varietyof numberingsystems;thisarticleuses
thesystemat thefollowing
Web site:LibraryofCongress,Printsand Photographs
Division,Printsand Photographs
of War Information(owl) Black-and-White
Online Catalog: SearchingFsA/Office
Negatives,http://lcweb2.loc
.gov/pp/fsaquery.html.
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706
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
Lettuce.Salinas,California."
June1935.PhotobyDoroFigure2. "Filipinos
Cutting
theaLange.Courtesy
Printsand Photographs
Division,FSA/OWI
ColLibraryofCongress,
LC-USF347-000826-D.
lection,
At theheartof herCaliforniastudieswas fieldlabor.She illustrated
howworkersgrew
California'scrops. She made 177 photographsdocumentingthe productionof cotton,
171 ofpeas, 54 of carrots,32 of potatoes,41 oflettuce,9 ofbeans,7 ofwheat,7 ofcauli9 ofcattleranching-and thosenumbersareunderestimates.24A greatproportion
flower,
of the workshe illustrated
was stoop labor.In thosephotographs,people are bent over
pickingcotton,pullingcarrots,diggingpotatoes,thinninglettuce,cuttingcabbage and
Theirbodies are partof the earth,theirfaceshiddenfromview by theirfocauliflower.
cus on thegroundand thehatstheywearto wardoffthestinging,
dizzyingsun and heat.
of
was
fascinated
the
those
and
vistas,
by
manyof thosephotographs
composition
Lange
are beautifulabstractions:the curvatureof the upside-downUs of the human bodies
standingin theseeminglyendlessrowsof plants,silhouettedagainsttheimmensesky.At
othertimesshe symbolizedlaborwithimagesof carrying.
She showedworkersdragging
cottonsacks,luggingbushelbaskets,wooden crates,armloadsoftiedcarrots.Theirbodies
lean faroffcenterto managetheweight.25
(See figures2 and 3.)
24The numberofphotographs
is an underestimate
becauseinferior
and near-duplicate
shotsarenoteasilyaccessiblein theLibraryofCongresscollection,and,giventheenormousnumberofphotographs,
mysearchcouldonly
thathad thenameofthecropin thecaptionor title.
bringup thosephotographs
2. Foran exampleofa phothatshowsstooplabor,see figure
25Forthemostfamousexampleofa photograph
NearSantaClara,Calisee DorotheaLange,"Pickercarrying
peasto theweighmaster.
tographthatshowscarrying,
fornia,"
LC-USF34-016470-E,FSA-OWI
Collection.
April1937, photograph,
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
707
on
Figure3. "Childof impoverished
Negrotenantfamily
working
farm.Alabama."July1936. PhotobyDorotheaLange.Courtesy
Library
Printsand Photographs
Division,FSA/OWICollection,LCof Congress,
USF34-009261-E.
She constructs
a visualnarrative
thattakesus to a momentwhenclassconflictbecomes
visible:weighing.The two setsof interests
are,bydefinition,
opposed. The workerswant
the highestpossibleweightforwhat theyhavepicked,the managersthelowest.All partiesarewatchingeach otherand thescale intensely.
Sometimestheworkersas well as the
are
former
on
much-used
scrapsofpaper,thelatterin account
weighmasters writing-the
books.26
The photosalso raisedquestionsabout whowas working.She made pointedimagesof
whole families,includingchildrenand old people,doingheavywork.Her captionsidenlesttherebe any ambiguityabout theirages. Those
tifysome subjectsas grandmothers,
claimed
picturespromptedfuriouslettersof denial,as when a countyprobationofficer
thatone of Lange'sphotographs,of a childwitha cottonsack waitingto go to workat
7:00 a.m., could not have been made duringtheschool term.27
26Forexamplesof photographs
thatshowweighing,
see DorotheaLange,"SmallCottonFarm,KernCounty,
Nov. 1938, LC-USF347-018639-C, FSA-OWICollection;DorotheaLange,"Weighingin
California,"
photograph,
Nov. 1936, LC-USF347-009965-C, ibid.; DoroCotton,SouthernSan JoaquinValley,California,"
photograph,
theaLange,"Weighingin Cotton,SouthernSan JoaquinValley,California,"
Nov. 1936, LC-USF347photograph,
009960-C, ibid.
of
to Rep. Toland,May 2, 1940, box 9, Paul S. TaylorPapers(BancroftLibrary,
27 C. M. Johnson
University
California,Berkeley).
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708
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
But she also knew thatthe farmworkerssuffered
less fromoverworkthan fromnot
work.
Their
was
that
fourhundredpickersworkingfor
problem
enough
growerspreferred
fivedaysto one hundredworkingfortwentydays,so jobs werebrief.Growersdeliberately
recruitedtoo manyworkers,both to keep wages low and to guaranteea speedyharvest,
withoutwhicha farmcould suffer
substantialloss. Despite growers'denials,Department
ofAgriculture
data show thatCaliforniaagriculture
had an oversupplyof labor in all but
threemonthsfrom1921 to 1940.28 Anotherinfluencewas mechanization,and she documenteditsunevendevelopmentin California.At thesame time,in different
placesin the
state,mules and tractorswerepullingplows. She photographedotherformsof rationalization,findingvisualmetaphorsfortheverticalintegration
big growerswereintroducing
-for example,packingvegetablesand fruitsrightin the fieldsratherthan cartingthem
to packinghouses or sheds,and producingtheirown cratesfromtheirown timberland
and lumbermills.In theSovietUnion at thistime,social realistphotographers
and artists
weremakingimagesofheroic,monumentalpeasants,femaleas well as male,mountedon
tractorsand even combines.In Lange'spicturesthe machinesdwarfthe drivers.She saw
as partoftheproblem,not thesolution.This orientationshoweddespiteFSAprestractors
sureto takea morepositiveapproach-after all, themachineshad oftenbeen paid forby
theDepartmentofAgriculture.29
The main FSAstrategy,
helpingfarmtenantsbecomeowners,made no sensein Califorknew
and
Paul
nia,
it,despitehis loyaltyto familyfarms.The farmworkers'plight
Taylor
had convincedhim thatthe firststep in remedyingworkers'miseryhad to be housing.
In 1935 thisitinerantpopulationhad two optionsforshelter:Some largegrowersmaintainedcampswithone-roomcabins,a waterpump,and outhousessharedby scoresifnot
hundreds-rentingfor$4 to $8 a month.(Wages weretypically$1.50 a day or 15 cents
an hour,and, ofcourse,theworkerswerepaid onlywhentheyworked.)30 Or themigrants
could join squatters'campswithno facilitiesat all. In neithersituationdid the migrants
have access to schools,medicalcare,legal services,suffrage,
or postal services.Theyhad
been excludedfromthe two pieces of New Deal legislationmost importantforworkers:
the 1935 Social SecurityAct and National Labor RelationsAct, and in 1938 theywould
be excludedfromtheFairLabor StandardsAct.This lackof protectionmade themparticularlyvulnerablebecauseworkerswho camped on growers'land could be evicted(not to
mentionworseretaliation)at thefirstsignof organizingor holdingout forbetterwages.
Withoutminimallyadequate and secureshelter,otherformsof help could be delivered.
So Taylorhad recruitedLange to help build the case forfederalcamps formigrantfarm
workers.Taylorand HarryDrobisch,directorof California'sRural RehabilitationDiviworkerscould enable further
sion,believedthathousingfortransient
governmentprovision of medical,sanitation,educational,and nutritionalresources.31
28 Senate Committeeon Educationand Labor,Subcommitteeon Senate Resolution266, Violations
ofFree
Speechand RightsofLabor,reportpreparedbyRobertM. LaFolletteJr.,ElbertD. Thomas,and David I. Walsh,74
Cong., 1 sess.,March 13, 1941,vol. 47, serial17305, quoted in LamarB. Jones,"Laborand Managementin CaliforniaAgriculture,
1864-1964," LaborHistory,
11 (Winter1970), 36.
29AlanL. Olmsteadand PaulW. Rhode,"AnOverviewoftheHistoryofCaliforniaAgriculture,"
WorkingPaper
of California,Davis). Landis,"Fate,Responsibility,
89, 1997, pp. 27-30 (Agricultural
HistoryCenter,University
weretwenty
and 'Natural'DisasterRelief,"306. In 1929, tractors
timesmorelikelyto be usedon Californiafarms
thanon Mississippifarms.Olmsteadand Rhode,"OverviewoftheHistoryof CaliforniaAgriculture,"
10.
30 HarveyM. Coverley,
fieldrepresentative,
CaliforniaFarmDebt AdjustmentCommittee,report,March 7,
1935, folder24, box 14,TaylorPapers.
31On thecamps-for-fieldworkers
Soule,JonathanGarst,
projects,see correspondence
amongTaylor,Frederick
and HarryDrobisch,cartons7 and 14,TaylorPapers.
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as Agricultural
The Photographer
Sociologist
709
When Californiaofficialsrejectedthe camp idea, dominatedas theywere by the big
growers,Taylorlooked to the FSAforfunding;but his FSAsuperiorsargued that such
labor relationsand would
campswould not advancefundamentalreformof agricultural
amountto a government
subsidyforthelargeemployers.Taylorand Drobischknewboth
had to be alleviating
claimsweretrue,but to them,on theground,theimmediatepriority
would
the FSA'smind,
set
documentation
that
So
about
Taylor
change
creating
suffering.
and his strategy
includedusingscoresof Lange'sphotographs.
Taylor'sreportssnareda quick $20,000 to build two FSAcamps.Taylorwanted them
put up fast,beforethebig growershad timeto organizean opposition,so he got directly
involved,choosing the sites and appointingthe staffs.Over the next fewyears,Lange
made scoresof photographsof thesecamps and theirresidents.The facilitiesthatcreated
thegreatestdelightwerethebathsand showers.When someone noted thatone new residenttook threebathsin one day,she repliedonly,"If you had had to go withouta bath
as long as I have .... " One observersaw a woman just arrivedin a camp who "stood under the showerall afternoon,crying,dryingherself,and going back into the shower."32
ButTaylornevergot thefundingto extendtheprogramenoughto meetthetremendous
to get protectionforagriculturalworkers.Alneed, as he also failedin his laterefforts
resettlement
and loan programsmighthelp tenants
he
still
that
the
FSA's
hoped
though
and possiblyfarmwage workersbuy land and become independentsmall farmers,he
surelyknewthatnothinglike thatwould happen soon in California.
Indeed,Taylor,and Lange with him, fellvictimto one of the occupationalhazards
of reformers
and especiallygovernmentinsiders:becomingso engrossedin fightingfor
theirone small projectthattheylost the distancefromwhich theycould have seen how
punyit was. They had to workso hard to establishtheirsmall camp programthat they
achievementsand pushed out of mind the
became proud of limited,even insignificant,
overallbalancesheet.Forexample,between1937 and 1939 thetotalnumberof FSAfarmpurchaseloans was only 6,094. In Texas, out of 15,000 applications,only 537 received
loans. In Virginia,a totalof41 loans weremade.33By 1942 theFSAwas runningonly 89
camps.In otherwords,FSAprogramsservedonlya smallfractionof thosein need. Survey
Graphicsolicitedan articleon thecamps fromTaylor,but when he sentit in, the editors
foundit "superficial
and too rosy-a look at a fewsmall spotswherea littlesomething
has been done; but it disregardsthe big problem."They posed the obvious tough questoiletsetc a subsidyof thelarge
tionthatTayloravoided:"To whatextentaregovernment
On theotherhand, theprideand optimismthatled to the
fruitand vegetableinterests?"
fantasythattheyweremakinga dent in the problemwas also what keptLange and Taylor going,and Paul Taylorcontinuedto supportfarmworkers'strugglesuntilthe day he
died in 1983.34
32 FirstquotationfromEricThomsen,speech,Jan.29, 1937, folder15, box 4, FarmSecurity
Administration
and editor,"Helen Hosmer:A Radiinterviewer
Papers(BancroftLibrary);secondquotationfromRandallJarrell,
of Caliin the 1930s,"typescript,
cal CriticofCaliforniaAgribusiness
1992, p. 43 (SpecialCollections,University
fornia,Los Angeles).
33On theFSAloans,see Neil Foley,TheWhiteScourge:
Mexicans,Blacks,and PoorWhitesin TexasCottonCulture
Lost,58.
1997), 181; and Kirby,RuralWorlds
(Berkeley,
34VW to BA, memo,June23, 1936, and n.d.,KelloggFolder,Correspondence
File,TaylorPapers.Forexample,
Taylorwas stillsendingmoneyand lendinghis name to the SouthernTenantFarmers'Union in 1981. Taylorto
SouthernTenantFarmers'Union,Oct. 2, 1981, folder3, box 11, ibid.
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710
TheJournal
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December2006
As Lange and TaylortraveledCalifornia'sroads, theysaw the influxof refugeesfrom
the dust bowl beforeit became national news. So in 1936 theyheaded to the affected
area. Taylor became a leading New Deal experton the Okie migration,"a churning
documentaryengine producingfactsand statisticsregardingthe catastrophe,"as the
CaliforniahistorianKevin Starrput it. Taylorwas also offering
a narrativeof its roots.35
His explanation,of course,was one that fithis politics:progressivein his relianceon
expertknowledge,New Deal in his commitmentto removingland fromcultivationand
in soil conservation,
promotingfederalinvestment
pro-familyfarmingin his condemnation of governmentsubsidiesto large-scaleindustrialagriculture.Lange triedto render
thatexplanationvisual.
Taylortracedthe dustbowl to the 1870s, when whitesettlersbegan to erode the "bison ecology"thathad sustainedthe Plains Indians. Ignoringthe semiaridconditionsof
thesouthernplains-the regionreceivedbetweenhalfand one-thirdas much rainas did
midwestern
farmland-settlersmovedin, establishedhomesteads,and plowed the earth.
They uprootedthe prairiegrassesthatheld down the drysoil. Heavy rainsin the 1880s
fosteredthedelusionthatplowingtheland actuallyincreasedtherainfall(theslogan "rain
followsthe plow" gained supporteven among scientists).Realtyand railroadcompanies
promotingsettlementadvertisedan allegedlyinexhaustibleshallow undergroundwater
beltthatcould be tappedand claimedthatproperplowingwould preventevaporation.In
fact,new methodsof plowingmade mattersworse.Earlierfarmers,
practicingwhat was
thencalled drylandfarming,had used listerplows,which centereda furrowso thatthe
loosenedearthfellsymmetrically
to bothsidesand leftuntilledridgesas barriersto wind.
When farmerssoughtgreaterproductivity,
theyswitchedto fasterone-waydisc plows,
whichused a set of parallelsharpdisksto pulverizeclumpsand turnedall the soil to one
side. These one-wayplows could handle heavystubbleand hard sun-bakedsoil, and as
mechanizationadvanced,theycould be fittedwithattachmentsforseeding.But theyleft
a finersurfacelayer,morevulnerableto thewind.
Soon, familyfarmswerelosingout to large-scalecommercialfarmsworkedby tenants.
As farmsizes grew,it became cost-effective
to mechanize.When the depressionlowered
farmprices,ownersrespondedby further
mechanizingand displacingtenants.Owners
became tenants,tenantsbecameday laborers.36
So the 1930s droughts,the worstin U.S. history,found the earthof the southern
plains defenselessagainstwind. Here is Paul Taylor,writingin his unique voice as a humanisteconomistwitha visualimaginationnurturedby Lange:
Likefreshsoreswhichopenbyover-irritation
oftheskinand closeunderthegrowth
ofprotective
cover,dustbowlsformand heal. Dust is notnewon theGreatPlains,
butnever..,. has itbeenso pervasive
and so destructive.
Dried byyearsofdrought
and pulverizedbymachine-drawn
thrownto
gangdiskplows,thesoilwas literally
thewindswhichwhippeditin cloudsacrossthecountry.... Theyloosenedthehold
in California(New York,1996), 233. BradD. LookingDreams:TheGreatDepression
Endangered
35KevinStarr,
1929-1941 (Athens,Ohio, 2001), 32.
bill,DustBowl,usA:Depression
Americaand theEcologicalImagination,
in High PlainsHistory,"Geographical
Review,88 (April1998), 246-47; Look36JohnOpie, "MoralGeography
ingbill,Dust Bowl,USA,12, 17-18. Paul S. Taylor,"'What Shall We Do withThem?'Addressto Commonwealth
Club ofCalifornia,
April15, 1938,"in On theGroundin theThirties,
byPaul S. Taylor(Salt Lake City,1983); Paul
S. Taylor,"RefugeeLaborMigrationto California,1937" [April1939], ibid.
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
711
on theland,and likeparticlesofdustdrovethemrollingdown ribbons
ofsettlers
ofhighway.37
One can arrangeLange'sdustbowl photographsaccordingto Taylor'secologicalstory.
Firstcomes the earthitself.She captureda fewdust storms,but theseimagesare not as
not even as powerfulas verbaldescriptions,
perpowerfulas thoseof dustbowl refugees,
seem
She
better
the
the
dust
makes
because
merelyfuzzy.
got
photographs
haps
swirling
effectfromimagesof thedunes of dust,thedriftscoveringfences,farmequipment,storwindowsofhouses.Then she showsus thecause: in thevast
age cellars,eventhefirst-floor
desertedplowed fieldswhereonce prairiegrassgrewand now nothinggrows;or in the
shotsof men on tractors,
matter-of-fact
plowingyetagain despitetheyearsof failure.
A second visual themein her photographs,desertion,beginswith the parchedfields,
naked and exposed,desertedby all vegetation.Then the picturesmove on to human desertion.Thereare numerousabandoned farmhouses,
rustingplows,isolatedrelicsof human society.Thereare thevacanttownsquares,thewide midwesternmain streetsnearly
emptyof vehicles,the storesboarded up or with brokenwindows.What she could not
showwas thatmanyfarmworkershad been drivenout, not by drought,but by eviction.
The same forcesthatcreatedthe dust bowl led to widespreadevictionsof tenants,enpaymentsto growersto reduce
AdjustmentAdministration's
couragedby theAgricultural
west
were leavingthe citiesand
theiracreageand to mechanize.Many of thosemoving
townswheretheyhad movedafterlosingtheirfarmsin the 1920s; now the droughtand
continuedmechanizationpulled down townas well as farmeconomies.38
Then thereis Lange'sdepressionspecialty:dejected men. (See figure4.) Here she is
are idle groupsof men
Taylor'saccountwitha genderstory.Everywhere
supplementing
in conversation-thedroughtareaconsistsof smalltownswherepeople knoweach other.
The men appear by the sides of the empty,silentmain streets.They are all thin. Some
stand,some squat,some lean on cars.Some are in overallsbut manyin "better"trousers,
clothesforgoing to town,because thereis no farmworkforthemto do. They all wear
hats,some of straw,some fedoras,some cowboyhats. Many attendmorningmoviesbecause thereis nothingelse to do. Thereare no women,an absence thattellsanotherpart
of thegenderstory:whenthereis neitherfarmworknorjobs forthemen,and theywhile
away the time in townwitheach other,the women are workinghard,even harderthan
ever:tryingto keephomes,bodies,clothing,food and waterclean; tryingto put together
meals with littlefood in the larderor moneyin the coffeecan; tryingto keep animals
alive and to givehuman spiritsa cushionagainstcripplingdepression.Lange is showing
and economicpressure.This was
underenvironmental
us how gendersystemstransform
and many otherdocumentaryphotographersconcentratedon the
riskyphotography,
elderly,because imagesof idle able-bodiedmen could be read as lazy,malingeringmen
lackingin workethic.39
families,
Next,these"Okie" familiesbecome migrants-and theyare overwhelmingly
not singlemen, indicatingthepermanenceof theirmove. Thereare severalvisual tropes
Taylor,AmericanExodus:A RecordofHuman Erosion(New York,1939),
17 DorotheaLange and Paul Schuster
102.
38Taylor,"'What ShallWe Do withThem?"';Taylor,"RefugeeLaborMigrationto California,1937"; JamesN.
American
Exodus:TheDust BowlMigrationand OkieCulturein California(New York,1989), 13-17.
Gregory,
and theGreatDepression
39This pointis made by Colleen McDannell,Picturing
(New HaFaith:Photography
ven,2004), 38.
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TheJournal
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History
December2006
reliefchecksat Calipatria,ImperialValley,CaliFigure4. "Waitingforthe semimonthly
fornia.Typicalstory:fifteen
yearsago theyownedfarmsin Oklahoma. Lost themthrough
foreclosure
whencottenpricesfellafterthewar. Became tenantsand sharecroppers.
With
thedroughtand dusttheycame West,1934-1937.Neverbeforeleftthecountywherethey
wereborn.Now althoughin Californiaovera yeartheyhaven'tbeen continuously
resident
in anysinglecountylongenoughto becomea legalresident.Reason:migratory
agricultural
laborers."March 1937. PhotobyDorotheaLange. Courtesy
Printsand
Libraryof Congress,
Division,FSA/OWI
Collection,
LC-USF34-016271-CDLC.
Photographs
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
713
offive,
sevenmonths
fromthedrought
area.'Broke,baby
family
Figure5. "Missouri
California."
Feb.1937.PhotobyDorothea
sick,cartrouble.'
U.S. 99 nearTracy,
Lange.
Printsand Photographs
LCDivision,FSA/OWI
Collection,
Courtesy
Libraryof Congress,
USF34-TO1-016452-E.
in theclassicLange photographsof theOkie droughtrefugees:
distanceshotsofauto caravans (as theystopped,becauseLange'sfilmspeed could not catchthemin motion),the
passengersin theirraggedclothesstandingor sittingoutsidethehotcarsas theywait-for
water,fora repair,fora used auto part;close-upsof how thejalopies arepacked-household belongingstiedto or hangingfromeverysurfaceof thecar.Sometimesthevehicles
are smallpickuptruckswithhomemadecanvasroofssheltering
thepeople in thebackhence the titleTaylorused in an article,"Againthe CoveredWagon." Other imagesfocus on the familiesthemselves-thenew pioneers,Lange and Taylorwantedto suggest.
The migrantsin herphotographsarenot paupersbut resourceful,
hard-working
people.40
buttheyareexTheirtripsmaynotbe quiteas dangerousas thoseofthepreviouscentury,
arduous.The men arehaggard,notonlyworriedbut sometimesa bitglassy-eyed,
tremely
fromdehydration
or heatpossiblyon the edge of cracking;theymaywell be suffering
stroke.(It was usuallysummerwhen Lange was on the road in the droughtareas.) The
men are alwaysdriving.Women,children,and elderlyfolkcrowdin elsewhere,manyof
40 For a usefulcontrast,
to thosebyWalkerEvansor byMargaretBourke-White
in
compareLange'sportraits
ErskineCaldwelland MargaretBourke-White,
YouHave SeenTheirFaces(New York,1937). Paul S. Taylor,"Again
theCoveredWagon,"SurveyGraphic,
24 (July1935), 348-51.
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TheJournal
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December2006
themholdingbabies,manyfeedingbabies withbottleor breast.The childrenhave dirty
faces,legs,feet,and clothing.
Then the familiescamp, oftenrighton the side of the road. Lange meant these images to supporttheFSAprogramofprovidinggovernment
campsforthemigrants.We see
how hardand ingeniouslythemigrantsworkto createlivingspace: shelterfroma canvas
vesstrungto trees,open firesor smallstoves,improvisedcookingsystems,multitasking
selsused forcooking,dishwashing,clotheswashing,bathing.Once camped,thewomen
are at the familycenter,workingand directingthe work of others.Men and older boys
may be absent on errandsor looking forwork. Occasionally,only childrenare in the
camp,perhapsbecauseadultsand youthhave foundworkand are in thefields.The older
childrenlook afteryoungerchildren.Everyone'sclothingis raggedand dirty;it is hard
enoughto getwaterto drink,let alone to wash.
In early1936 theLos Angeleschiefof police orderedthatthemigrantsbe turnedback
at thestateline-an unconstitutional
actionby an officialwithno legaljurisdictionouthis staffoperatedthis"bum blockade"fortwo monthsbeside Los Angeles.Nevertheless,
forea courtstoppedit. Howeverpreposterousthisescapade,Los Angeleshad a justifiable
grievance:migrantfarmworkers'only chance at reliefwas to get to a city,but President
Roosevelthad suspendedfederalrelieffundsin 1935, just as the Okie migrationintensified.The migrantswerelargelyfarmers,
but the Departmentof Agriculturehad nothing
to offerthem.Lange triedto photographthe blockadebut did not succeed in makingit
visual,so she reliedon words."Theywon'tgo," Lange wrotein one of hercaptions,quoting a case workerin ImperialCounty chargedwithtryingto send the transientsback to
wheretheycame from,"untiltheygetso hungrythatthere'snothingelse forthemto do.
Theywon'tgo-not twenty-five
percentwill go."4'
In the summersof 1936, 1937, 1938, and 1939, Lange and Taylorworkedtogetherin
everysouthernstateexceptKentuckyand West Virginia.Here, too, theywerediscoverwas once again systematic
ing a povertyremotefromtheirexperience.Her photography
and argumentative.
As in the droughtarea, she coveredenvironmentalmisuse,but not
We see not onlyhuge gullieswithtreerootsexposed by soil erosionbut
onlybyfarmers.
also abusesbylumbercompanies,such as one thirty-seven-mile
swathofcutoverwithno
the
and
resultant
of
whatsoever,
replanting
unemployment 3,000 men and devastationof
lumber-milltowns.42Here she emphasizedlackof mechanizationamong otherformsof
backwardness:wagonsand plowspulled bymules,oxen,menand boys,and lack ofbasic
services-mail delivery,
schools,stores-particularlyforblacks.If themajormasculinity
themeof the droughtarea was dejection,in theSouth itwas sweat-drenched
labor.
Her captionsspecifiedeconomic relations.She notesthe manywaysthatplantersand
managerscheated.She explainscrop liens,debt peonage, and low wages-$1 a day for
hoeingcotton6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Thereis no freemarketin labor.The plantationsdid
littleto mechanizebecause the extremely
low-wageeconomygave plantersno incentive
So Lange is moresympathetic
to tractorshere:"One man and a
to increaseproductivity.
FarmLaborin theUnitedStates,"Monthly
LaborReview,44 (March,1937), 537-49.
41PaulTaylor,"Migratory
and theGreatDepression
LeonardJosephLeader,LosAngeles
(New York,1991).
42 Forexample,see DorotheaLange,"Tractor
on theAldridgePlantation,Mississippi,"
June1937,
photograph,
Collection.
LC-USF347-017099-C, FSA-OWI
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
715
whoraisetobacco.Family
ofeighthas
Figure6. "DoublelogcabinofNegrosharetenants
beenon thisplacesixorsevenyears.PersonCounty,
NorthCarolina."
July1939.Photoby
DorotheaLange.Courtesy
Printsand Photographs
Division,FSA/OWI
CollecLibraryofCongress,
tion,LC-USF34-020029-C.
four-row
cultivatordoes theworkof eightmen and eightmulesundertheone man-one
mule systemwhichis stillcommon."But she does remindus thatmechanizationconstituteda kindofshock-therapy
accumulation,withthehundredsof thousandsof
primitive
evictionsthatresulted:"This man was a tenanton the same farmforeighteenyears.He
has sixchildren.Thisyearhe was forcedintostatusof day laboreron thesame farm.The
farmowneremployedtwenty-three
tenantfamilieslastyear.This year,thesame acreage,
seven
The evictionsnot onlyleftpeople homelessbut
tractors,
using
requires
families."43
also deprivedthemof vegetablegardens,wood gathering,
and huntingand fishingrights
on which theyhad depended forsustenance,much as manyEuropeanswere deprived
and nineteenth-century
enclosuremovement.Her photographs
duringthe eighteenthshow tobaccoor cottongrowingliterallyup to thefrontdoor of tenants'houses.
Lange documentedhousing,althoughonly fromthe outside. (She rarelyused flashon hersubjects.44)
bulbs,becauseshe did not liketheireffect
Thesephotographsrevealed
It
in
was
the
South
that
she
to photographthe
ventured
only
appalling inequalities.
she
made
in
of
some
houses,
prosperous;
pictures grandplantation
decayand some still
with
wealth.
But
her
of
were
shining
byno meansall
photographs poor people'shousing
of
wretchedness.
Like
other
FSA
she
some
WalkerEvmade
every
images
photographer,
" Dorothea
ontheSameFarmforEighteen
Years... EllisCounty,
Texas,"
Lange,"ThisManWasa Tenant
phoibid.
June1937,LC-USF347-017152-C,
tograph,
44DorotheaLangeinterview
ofAmerican
Art).
byDoud,May22, 1964,transcript,
p. 15 (Archives
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716
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
oftenwiththeobviouspurposeof showans-likephotographsofvernaculararchitecture,
skill
small farmowners,black and white,
the
and
some
and
occasional
care
croppers
ing
used in buildingand caringfortheirhomes.At othertimesdisrepairand disorderdomiherportraits:she made onlyflatternatethepictures.The same rangedid not characterize
photographsofsubjects.Thiswas of courseherstudio-learnedskill,but it
ing,dignifying
also expressedherdemocratic,PopularFrontpolitics-ennobling thepoor.
For threesouthernagriculturalproducts-cotton, tobacco, and turpentine-Lange
triedto illustratethe entirelaborprocess,attemptingto communicaterespectforthe labor and skillof thefarmworkers.One eighthundred-wordcaptioninstructedthereader
in tobaccogrowing,fromprimingto firingthe barns.
Subject:Puttingin Tobacco:
is also sometimes
Thisprocessis also knownas "saving"tobacco;theword"priming"
term
to
the
entire
this
describes
the
actualremoval
process,althoughstrictly
applied
oftheleavesfromtheplant.Theprocessis also knownas "curingtobacco,"although
hereagain thistermappliesstrictly
onlyto one particularpartoftheprocess.
1. "PRIMING." Beginningat thebottomoftheplant,theleavesarestripped;usuallytwoor threebottomleavesareremovedat one priming.Onlytheripeleavesare
bythecolorof theleaf.When ripe,theleaves
primed,and ripenessis determined
to distinguishfromthe
are pale yellowin color,althoughtheyare oftendifficult
greenleaves.Hence thejob ofprimingis somethingofan art,whichis leftto the
menofthefamilyor to those"womenfolks"who are skilledat it. In thefieldpicor sand leaves,
ture,themenareprimingforthesecondtime,the"first
primings,"
of
the
mannerin
been
removed.
Note
the
method
the
leaves,
removing
having
whichtheyareheld,and thecarewhichis exercised
to prevent
bruisingor breaking.
follows]
[a listof 11 negatives
to
2. "SLIDING TOBACCO TO THE BARN." The primingsare transported
thebarns,wheretheywill be tiedor strung,in the"slide"(also called sled). Note
oftheslide-frame
construction
ofwoodenstrips,on a pairofwoodenrunners.The
Guano
of
the
slide
is
made
of
is narrowenough
sacks,and theentirestructure
body
to runbetweenthe rowsof tobaccowithoutbreakingthe leaves.In thisinstance
twoslidesarein use;whileoneload oftobaccois beingstrung,theotherslideis sent
to thefieldforanotherload. [5 negatives]
3. "STRINGING THE TOBACCO." At thebarn,thetobaccois strungon sticks
bythewomenand children,and thosemenwho are notrequiredin thefield.The
sticksare of pine,fourfeetlong.The stringis fastenedat one end, and theleaves
on each
of tobaccoin bunchesof threeor four,are strungon thestickalternately
When a stick
side.Note thenotched"horses"forholdingthestickswhilestringing.
is filledwithtobacco,it is removedfromthehorseand piled in frontofthe barn,
areprovidedto keep
whereit remainsuntilputup in thebarn.Sometimesshelters
thesunfromthetobacco,afteritis strung,
sinceveryhotsunwillburnthetobacco.
In thiscase twopeoplearestringing,
one oftheman expertnegroboy,and two or
to thestringer.
threepeopleare"handingtheprimings"
[12 negatives]
4. "PUTTING IN THE TOBACCO." At noon,afterthelastslideofthemorning
has comefromthefield,thetobaccowhichhas beenstrungis hungfromthebarn.
Thebarnsareoffourorfive"rooms"(a roomis thespacebetweenthetierpoles;the
barnin thepictureis a fourroombarn,and willholdabout600 sticksoftobacco).
Two mengo up on thetierpoles,and thetobaccois handedup to them.One room
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as Agricultural
The Photographer
Sociologist
717
is filledat a time.In thebarnpicture,severalpeople'stobaccois beingput in tosomefirst
mentioned,
primings
gether;thereare,in additionto thesecondprimings
in qualityto thesecondprimings,
and
fromanotherfield.Thesearemuchinferior
arecoveredwithsand--hence
theterm"sandleaves."[7 negatives]
5. "FIRING THE BARNS." When the barn is filled,the tobacco is allowed to
overnight,untiltheleavesarethoroughly
wilted.
hangforseveralhours,sometimes
Firesare thenbuiltin thefurnaces,and theprocessof curingbegins.The heat is
keptat ninetydegreesuntilthetobaccois "yellowed"thenis graduallyraiseduntil
all oftheleafexceptthestemis cured,whenthefinalstage,"killingout,"is reached.
T-heheatis usuallyraisedrapidlyuntilitreaches190 or 200 degrees.Curingtakes
it may
about threedaysand threenights,althoughundercertaincircumstances
takelonger.Afterthetobaccois cured,itis allowedto hangin thecuringbarnuntil
it "comesin order"-absorbsenoughmoistureso thatit can be handledwithout
breaking-whenit is takendown and packedin the pack house. Here it remains
untilit is strippedout. It is usuallytakenup and repackedonce,so thatitwill not
moistand mould.[5 negatives]45
becomeexcessively
These shortessayssought to defetishizeagriculturalcommodities,revealingthem as
productsof human labor,but theywereneverpublished.
Everywherein the South Lange triedto illustrateaspects of the racial system,not
labor marketdiscrimination,
and dual wage scale, but also the inonly the segregation,
of theJimCrow system:"The threeyearold whitegirl
terracialintimaciescharacteristic
at intervalsslappedand switchedthelittleNegro girlabout herage and once called hera
damn fool;but betweentheseoutburststhe childrenplayedtogetherpeaceably."She listenedto whitecropperscomplainingabout theblacksand to blackstellingherhow they
managedthewhites:"We knowour whitefolksand just what to sayto please them."46
When Lange firstenteredthe South she was struckby its lack of forwardmotion.As
herson Daniel Dixon summarized:
Up untilthen,mostof herworkhad been done in areas whereDepressionhad
shakenapartanyformof social order.But in the South,a social orderremained,
the
and itheldso tenaciously
to thosewholivedunderitthatin orderto photograph
theorderas well. "I couldn'tpry
peopleshediscoveredthatshehad to photograph
thetwo apart .... Earlier,I'd gottenat peoplethroughthewaysthey'dbeen torn
loose,butnowI had to getat themthroughthewaystheywereboundup."47
But soon she came to see disruptionhere,too. She documentedthe evictionof croppers
into day laborers,visiblein the men waitingon urban street
and theirtransformation
cornersforworkand in thetruckloadsofworkersbeingferriedto and fromdistantfields.
Floridain particularbegan to look like California.Southerngrowerswho werenow relying on wage labor quicklyadopted the Californiaplan of recruitingmoreworkersthan
theyneeded in orderto be assuredof reliablecheap labor.48Moreover,theAgricultural
AdjustmentAct was speedingup those tendencies:more and more southernfarmland
GranvilleCounty,N.C., file3167B, Southern
45DorotheaLange,"GeneralCaption#6,"July7, 1939, Shoofly,
ofNorthCarolinaLibrary,
HistoricalCollection(University
Chapel Hill).
46 DorotheaLange,"General
Caption#7,"ibid. Caption to DorotheaLange,"Negroon theAldridgePlantation,Mississippi,"
Collection.
June1937, LC-USF347-017137-C, FSA-OWI
photograph,
47Daniel Dixon quotedin Levinand Northrup,DorotheaLange,I, 39.
in theSoutheast,see TerrellCline (FSA,Belle Glade, Fla.) to JohnBeecher
48 Foran exampleof over-recruiting
Ala.), May 14, 1939, copy,MiscellaneousMaterial,vol. 1, LangeArchive.
(FSA,Birmingham,
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718
ofAmericanHistory
TheJournal
December2006
came into the hands of absenteecorporations;plantationswere expandingin size; and
ownersbroughtin tractorsand wage laborersto replace mules
large efficiency-minded
and tenants.49
Lange and Taylorwanted theirjoint work to educate Americansabout agricultural
some unlabor,but theyoperatedwithinconstraints.Some theyresistedsuccessfully,
forexample,wereasand to some theycapitulated.The FSAphotographers,
successfully,
and whilehe was alwaysclearthatthephotographers
signed"shootingscripts"byStryker,
should improviseand photographopportunistically,
theyneverthelesstried to comply
withhis requests,such as thisone:
I. Productionof foods... a. Packagingand processing... b. Picking,hauling,
preparing,
drying,
canning,packaging,loadingforshippingc. Fieldoperasorting,
d. Dramaticpicturesoffields,show"pattern"
cultivation;
tions-planting;
spraying
ofthecountry;getfeelingoftheproductive
earth,boundlessacres.e. Warehouses
filledwithfood,rawand processed,cans,boxes,bags,etc.50
By the late 1930s political attackson the FSAforcedStrykerto ask his photographers
to quit focusingon poor people and the depressionand instead get "picturesof men,
women and childrenwho appear as if theyreallybelieved in the U.S. . . . Too many
in our filenow paint the U.S. as an old person'shome . .. everyoneis too old to work
and too malnourishedto care . . . We particularlyneed . . . More contented-looking
couples-woman sewing,man reading;sittingon porch; workingin garden." By that
timewar threatened,and StrykerfeltthatAdolf Hitlerwas "at our doorstep."51
Most of
thephotographers,
includingLange, complied.
Lange and Tayloralso wantedtheirvisual and textual"researchfindings"to tella story-that is, to communicatehistoricalchange.Ultimately,
theyjointlyproduceda book,
AmericanExodus(1940), forwhichTaylorwrotea capsule historyof the threemodes of
agriculturethat Lange had photographed.Presentinga historicalanalysisthroughstill
photographsalone was not easy.IfLange had had herway,theFSAwould havedistributed
not singlephotographsbut photo essays,to show instability
and transformation.
But the
in
FSA had a farmore instrumental
goal distributing
photographs-developingpopular
of what photosupportforits programs-and a narrowerand shallowerunderstanding
communicate.52
should
graphs
Attemptingto controlthe meaningsof her pictures,Lange wrotelong, informative
captionsforthe photographs.She said thatshe learnedthisfromTaylor,who not only
collecteddata fromhis subjectsbut also interviewedthem and wrote down what they
said. She rejectedthe picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words
idea and believedinsteadthat
documentaryphotographsusuallyremainedambiguous if not accompanied by words.
She wanted to fix the meaningsof photographs.Strykerunderstoodhis projectas collectingphotographicevidence,so even beforehe saw Lange'sworkhe had alreadyasked
4 Forexample,lifeinsurancecompaniesand banksowned30% ofsoutherncottonland in 1934; in thecotton
theLand, 168-77.
belt,60-70% oflandwas notownedbyfarmoperators.Daniel, Breaking
theWar:UrbanAmerica
fom 1935 to 1941 as
"script"quotedin ThomasH. Garver,ed.,Justbefore
50Stryker's
SeenbyPhotographers
Administration
(New York,1968), n.p.
oftheFarmSecurity
In ThisProudLand: America1935-1943 as Seenin theFSAPhotographs
51 E Roy Stryker,
(Greenwich,1973),
188.
52Langeand Taylor,AmericanExodus.The FSAclaimedthatitsdistribution
In thefirst
apparatuswas effective.
sixmonthsof 1936, thestill-fledgling
agencycounted1,255 picturespublishedin newspapers,541 in magazines,
and 1,202 in exhibits.Inter-office
memo,June16, 1936, FSAmicrofilm,
Libraryof Congress.
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as Agricultural
The Photographer
Sociologist
719
his photographersto providedetailed identifications-who,when, where-with each
picture.Soon Lange became his mastercaptioner,and he taughthis other photographersby usinghersas models.Althoughher captionswerenot usuallyas lengthyas the
one printedabove-that was whatshe called a "generalcaption,"attachedto a group of
providedbrieflifehistoriesof hersubjectsand/oreconomic
photographs-theytypically
data about theirchangingexperiencesof landownership,earnings,and standardof living. She was attemptingto connectpersonalexperiencewithvasthistoricalprocesses,to
createphotographicmicrohistories.
She did not want herphotographsto become iconic;
she meantthemas documentsabout specificsocial,economic,and politicalcontexts.Her
use of captions,both to delimitand to expand the meaningof herphotographs,parallels
not onlybycroppingand framing,as all phoherlaborto controltheimagesthemselves,
tographersdo, but also by askingsubjectsto move,coaxingthemto animationthrough
and incorporating
detailto communicatesocial context.
conversation,
But thephotographswereusuallypublishedwithoutcaptions.Sometimesthe FSAstaff
edited and bowdlerizedher words. In this caption,forexample,one phrasewas struck
out by the FSA:"Old Negro-thekind the planter like. He hoes, picks cotton,and is full
She hated the way her photographknown as "MigrantMother" was
of good humor."53
removedfromits contextand turnedinto a universalimage of motherhood.Her famous plantation-owner
pictureprovidesa vividexampleof thisambiguityand deracination:Her photograph's
visualstructure
replicatesthesocial-economicstructure-therelationsof powerand deferenceon a southernplantation.But ArchibaldMacLeish took it,
croppedit,and used it in his book Land oftheFree(1938), turningthewhiteman into a
(See figures7 and 8.)
pioneerAmericanism.54
symbolof salt-of-the-earth
Even beforeshe joined the FSA,Lange's photographicmethodwas conducive to replevel.To illustratewith a comparison:
resentinghistoricalchangeon the microhistorical
WalkerEvanswould line up his subjectsand hold themstill,as in an old-fashionedportraitstudio;his subjectsappeartimeless,oftenintense,but rarelyactive.His manycloseintensifiedthe stabilityof his oeuvre. Lange wanted her
ups of vernaculararchitecture
subjectsin motion. Ironically,her method in the fieldderivedpreciselyfromher long
She employedtwo
experienceas a portraitphotographerto the elite and high-cultured.
fell
her
until
into
theirnaturalposshe
conversed
with
either
they
subjects
approaches:
tureand gesture,or she took so long to set up her equipmentthattheyforgother and
returnedto what theyhad been doing. She could not, of course,actuallycapturemovementbecauseherfilmwas not fastenough,but she could capturetheeloquence of bodily
expression.She individuatedsubjectsas much throughbodies as faces. Despite theheavy,
repetitiousmovementsof fieldlabor,hersubjectsoftenseemedunsettled,uncertain,disrupted,deracinated,and thiswas exactlywhatshe wantedto communicateabout the agriculturalpoliticaleconomy.
Some of the FSA'smost successfulphotographs,judgingfromtheirstayingpower,resultedfromphotographers'
strayingfrominstructions-thoseregardinggender,forexample.AlthoughalmosteveryNew Deal policyrestedon familywage assumptions-that
and thatwivesshould
men shouldbe able to supportwivesand childrensingle-handedly,
intheLiinLange's
ownhandtothecaption
attached
tothephotograph
" I havecompared
theoriginal
caption
ofCongress;
Dorothea
June1939,
brary
Lange,"OldNegro,He Hoes,PicksCottonandIs FullofGoodHumor,"
areinLangeArchive.
Herhandwritten
Collection.
LC-USF34-017079-C,
FSA-OWI
captions
photograph,
LandoftheFree(NewYork,1938),7.
MacLeish,
5 Archibald
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720
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
owner.Mississippi
Delta,nearClarksdale,
June1936.
Mississippi."
Figure7. "Plantation
PhotobyDorotheaLange.Courtesy
Printsand Photographs
Division,FSA/
Library
ofCongress,
owi Collection,
LC-USF34-TO-009599-C DLC. Figure8, on the facingpage, showsthe
same imageas croppedbyArchibaldMacLeish.Reprintedfrom
ArchibaldMacLeish,Land
oftheFree(New York,1938), 7
not be employed-and aimed to strengthen
themale breadwinner
The usual Popfamily.
ularFrontartisticiconsstereotyped
womenas helpmatesand earthmothers.Lange,along
withthelaterFSAphotographer
EstherBubley,visualizedwomen as independent,to the
that
her
work
could
be
considered
proto-feminist.
degree
Again theruralsubjectmatter
was partlyresponsible,
becausea sexualdivisionoflaborwas lessfixedamongfarm-workingpeople. Lange'sworkshowswomenat hardlaboralmostas oftenas men. Her depression womenweresharplyetched-often thin,oftendelicate,alwaystough.She did love
maternalimages,but she oftenpresentedfatherless
mother-child
units,decenteringthe
maritalcouple as familycore. The photographycriticSally Stein has pointedout how
oftenLange'sworkalso focusedon fathers
withchildren,anothercommonaspectof rural life,thoughrarelynoticed.Softenedimagesof men characterized
herworkgenerally,
as ifshe werefindingthepositiveside of male helplessnessand disempowerment.
Lange
roseto thechallengeofpresenting
idle,unemployedmen as worriedand despondent,yet
manlynonetheless."
themostimportant
and compellinganalysisregarding
55 By far,
Lange'sfocuson bodiesis SallyStein,"Peculiar
Grace:DorotheaLangeand theTestimony
of theBody,"in DorotheaLange:A VisualLife,ed. ElizabethPartridge
and PopularFrontstereotypes,
see Me(Washington,1994), 57-89. On genderedNew Deal policyassumptions
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
721
Lange'soppositionto racism,by contrast,was more than "proto."It was conscious,
considered,and consistent.She made more picturesof people of color-31 percentof
her totaloutput-than did any otherFSAphotographeruntilGordon Parksjoined the
And FSAphotographers
producedmoreimagesofpeopleofcolorthanNew Deal
group.56
artsworkersin general.Here too Lange'sperspectivegrewfromher agricultural
assignmentand itslocation:had she been focusingon industrialworkersand theurbanpoor,or
as she did.
had she beenworkingin theEast,shewould havenothaveseenracialdiversity
to includepeople ofMexican,Filipino,Japanese,
Langewas thefirst
Anglophotographer
and Chineseoriginin herportraitofAmerica.Lange and Taylor'sfirst1935 reporton the
need forfederalcampsforfarmworkersdepictedthosewho neededand deservedgovernmentactionas peopleofcolor:thirteen
photographsfeaturedMexicansor otherpeopleof
who
could
color,sevenfeatured
(Allthepeoplewereattractive.)
people
possiblybe white.57
field
notes
from
feature
conversations
withMexicanworkers.She
1935
frequently
Lange's
warmemorialsthat
Culture.Fora workthatexaminesa similarartisticchallenge-constructing
losh,Engendering
theMemory
neitherglorify
warnordishonorthosewho fought-see,GeorgeL. Mosse,FallenSoldiers:
Reshaping
of
theWorldWars(New York,1990).
(Knoxville,1992), 61-62,
ofFsA
56NicholasNatanson,TheBlackImagein theNewDeal: ThePolitics
Photography
to serveas
hiredby theagency:he used a RosenwaldFoundationfellowship
72. GordonParkswas not originally
to bringin Parks
an internunderStryker.
had beenreluctant
Stryker's
shopwas byno meansfreeofracism:Stryker
evenas an intern,
and FSAdarkroom
workers
did notwantto processfilmforhim.
ofthepeoplein thesephotographs
is basedon appearance,whenit providesclearidentifi57My categorization
cation,butalso on clothingand thetypesofshacksbuiltbytheworkers-forexample,Mexicansoftenbuilthutsof
and palms.StateEmergency
ReliefAdministration
cactus,branches,
report,March 1935,TaylorPapers.
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722
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
inSundayclothes.
NearBlytheville,
Arkansas."
June1937.Photo
Figure9. "Cottonworker
Printsand Photographs
Division,FSA/OWI
byDorotheaLange. Courtesy
Libraryof Congress,
LC-USF34-017363-C.
Collection,
notedwithrelishthatone old pickerhad foughtagainstEmperorMaximilian.Evenwhen
it is oftenclearthatshe is interviewing
and photoher notesdo not indicateethnicity,
graphingMexicans:In Calexico,California,at theMexicanborder,she was told,"'I don'
likeyou makethepicturebecausewe have shametheeshouse."' "Theseare theforgotten
men,womenand childrenof ruralCaliforniabut on thesepeople thecropsof California
In the South she made dozens of compelling,close-up
depend,"she and Taylorwrote.58
of
African
Americans,portraitsthatexhibitthreequalitiesthatLange always
portraits
lovedin hersubjects- bodilygrace,contemplative
demeanor,and social connectedness.
Her photographsdrewfarmworkersof color into citizenship,an effectthatrestedin
part on lingeringassociationsof citizenshipwith the land. She photographedAfrican
Americanswiththesamevisualtropesshe used withwhites,representing
themas equally
American
Her
salt-of-the-earth
of
the
hardy
farmers-part
yeomanry.59 subjectsdisplayed
Her focuson citizenshipfita much-criticized
FSApolicy
citizenlycompetenceand dignity.
of payingpoll taxesforthe southernpoor; as the FSAdirectorC. B. Baldwinexplained,
"we took the positionthata personcouldn'tbe a good citizenwithoutbeinga voter."'6
58DorotheaLange'sfieldnotes,n.d.,LangeArchive.
and theDepressionSouth"(Ph.D.
Photography
59CharlesAlan Watkins,"The BlurredImage:Documentary
of Delaware,1982), 323.
diss.,University
60 Baldwininterview.
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
723
oftheDeltacooperative
farmat Hillhouse,Mississippi."
June
Figure10. "Member
Printsand Photographs
1937. PhotobyDorotheaLange. Courtesy
Libraryof Congress,
LC-USF34-017299-C.
Division,FSA/OWI
Collection,
Her subjectsare thoughtful,
evencerebral.She givesthemgravitasby lightdeliberative,
moments.And
ing themwell, by shootingfrombelow,by waitingfortheirthoughtful
she used verbalevidencewhen she could. She copied into her notebookthewordsof a
femalefarmworker,"'I want to go back to Mexico but mychildrensay,No we all born
herewe belongin thiscountry.
We don'tgo."' She captionedone lovelyportraitof father
and baby,"Futurevoter& his Mexicanfather."''
With respectto race,theFSAhobbledLange morethanin anyotherdimension.Itsinstructionwas clear:no violationof southernracialcodes. No photographsof blacksand
whitesin social contact,no references
to racialoppression,no imagesof racialinequality
or abuse ofblacks.The sexualdivisionoflaborin whichwomencould be full-time
housewiveswas reservedforwhites.Heroic workershad to be white,whichwas to say,"typical Americans."Lange and the otherfemaleFSAphotographer
who workedin the rural
obstacleto illustrating
thesouthernsystem
South,Marion PostWolcott,faceda further
that
discussion
with
or
even
to
a
white
woman
createdan acute
honestly:
any
proximity
for
a
black
man.62
danger
Most of theFSAphotographers,
at times.
Lange included,violatedFSAracialstrictures
In urban scenes theyshowed "whitesonly" signs or AfricanAmericansgivingway to
61
62
Quotationfromcaptionto photograph
RA 825B, LangeArchive.
A Photographic
PostWolcott:
E JackHurley,Marion
(Albuquerque,1989).
Journey
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724
TheJournal
ofAmericanHistory
December2006
whiteson the sidewalk.The sidewalkscenes skirtedclose to the taboo againstshowing
blacks and whitestogether.Lange also violated thatprohibitionby showingthe racial
intimacythatconstitutedthe reverseface of the southernracialsystem.She could not,
of course,capturethe manyinterracialsexual relationships,
both freeand coerced,that
in theSouth. But she showedchildrenplayingand bondingacrossraciallines,
flourished
whiteand black farmworkersrelaxingat stores,and, above all, she emphasizedthe simiBut the photographers'
laritiesamong black and whitesharecroppers.
verydesireto reAfrican
Americans
led
included-to
white
and black tenthem-Lange
represent
spect
ants' livingand workingconditionsas identical,whichwas not the case. This practice
how equal treatmentof unequals reproducesinequality.It matched,forexexemplifies
the
as whites,
ample,
FSAsloan policy,in whichblackshad to meetthesame requirements
the
eventhough JimCrow economymade blackspoorer.
refrainfortheFSA.
Emphasizingwhite-blackcommonalitywas a deliberate,systematic
Yet forLange and Taylor,avoidinga focuson racismwas not entirelyan externallyimbecause in manywaysit fittheiranalysisof the South. To recenthistoriposed stricture,
ans any conceptionof thepre-civilrightsSouth, its main featureappearsas racism.But
of the 1930s, even to antiracists
such as Lange and Taylor,otheraspectsof the southern
seemed
at
in the Department
least
politicaleconomy
equally fundamental.Progressives
of Agriculture,
severalof whom were southerners,
saw the problemof farmtenancyas
fundamentalto all aspectsof theSouth: economic backwardness,
culturalbackwardness,
as well as racism.And most Departmentof Agriculturepeoundemocraticgovernment,
than with black. In 1935 nearly
ple werefarmore concernedwithwhitesharecroppers
werelandless.63
halfof all U.S. farmers
The analysisthateconomicexploitationunderlay
racismreflectednot only the agricultureexperts'primaryconcernwithland tenure,but
more broadly,a tendencytowarddenial of northernracismthatcharacterizednorthern
liberals.At a timewhen 75 percentofAfricanAmericanslivedin the southeastern
states,
itwas easierthanit is todayto see racismas a southernproblem.The East Coast-centered
thatillusionbecause it hid westapproachof mostagricultural
policymakersreinforced
erngrowers'equal dependenceon workersof color.
Then too, Lange'sphotographsof people of color werefarless oftendistributedthan
those of whites.The FSA'sfirstAnnual Report,for 1935-1936, a glossy173-page book
withapproximately
fifty
photographs,containednot one of a personof color.The historianNicholas Natanson,who studiedrace in New Deal imagery,has providedextensive
evidenceand analysisof thatexclusionary
policy.FSAimagesdid not includechain gangs,
The
childlabor,inferiorblackpublic facilitiessuch as schoolsor healthcare institutions.
of
firstFSAtravelingexhibitomittedall images blacksexceptforone Lange portraitsanitizedof itscontextand caption,and even thatbroughtobjectionfromtheTexas FSAOffice:"'evena Spanish-American
farmer's
picturewould not be popularin WestTexas."' A
muralin New YorkCity'sGrand CentralTerminalput togetherby the FSA'SEd Rosskam
out of twentyFSAphotographsshowed not one black face,althoughit was mountedby
Even when FlorenceLoeb Kelloggof SurveyGraphicspecifically
a blackassistant.64
asked
theFSAforphotographsshowingracialdiversity,
she did not getthem.So nervouswas the
FSAin itslateryearsthatStryker
wentto greateffort
to hide the factthatRichardWright
63On thenumber
in 1935,seeGilbert
oflandless
farmers
andBrown,
in
"Alternative
LandReform
Proposals
the1930s,"355.
64Natanson,
BlackImageintheNewDeal,215-23,esp.220.
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
725
used FSAphotographsto illustratehis 12 Million Black Voices(even thoughit was Rosskam who originatedtheprojectand recruitedWrightforit in 1941).65
of valorizingthe poor by distribLange made no recordedprotestagainstthe strategy
picturesofwhites,and I would guessthatshe acceptedit,as did so many
utingprimarily
New Deal progressives,
includingWill Alexander,thehead oftheFSAand a veteranleader
ofthesoutherninterracial
movement.It probablyseemedto herparallelto thestrategy
of
the
them
handsome.
that
and
believed
valorizing poor by making
Stryker,
Taylor
Lange,
the FSAsurvivedonlythroughracialcompromises,whichwerenot limitedto the Southeast. Not only were the FSAcamps for migrantfarmworkers-the firstfederalpublic
housing-segregated;oftentherewereno camps at all forpeople of color.One historian
suggestedthat the FSAconcentratedon blond-hairedchildren.Yet, Nicholas Natanson,
stronglycriticalof visual imagesof blacks in the New Deal, calculatedthatthe FSA did
betterthan any othergovernmentartsprogramin providingpositiveimagesof blacks.
In theFSA'S
whole photographiccollection,blacksconstituted10 percentof subjects-ala
much
lowerpercentageof what the FSAdistributed.66
though
But even bracketingthe externalconstraints,Lange's attemptto createnot only inanti-racist
tried
clusive,but specifically
photographywas less successful.She consistently
to use visual relationshipsto show social and economic ones. She made a fewpictures
of "bad guys":the plantationowner,the crude southernoverseer,the Californiasheriffs
thug.But theyweremostlyagents,not authors,of racism-or of class relations,forthat
matter-as a structure.In her photographsshe was rarelyable to make spatialrelations
metaphoricof powerrelations,and when she did theywerenot readableas such without
captions.I have asked manypeople to interpretthe photographreproducedhere as figure 11, but no one catchesits subject-a farmervainlytryingto persuadeDepartment
ofAgriculture
agentsto granta loan. She tried,as always,to add textto specifywhat she
meant.She oftenquoted hersubjectsabout racism,but theircommentswereneverpublishedwithherphotographs.For example,"Hours are nothingto us. You can'tindustrialize farming.
We in Mississippiknowhow to treatour niggers."''67
Lange made severalattemptsto photographorganizedprotest-the San Francisco
longshoreand generalstrikeof 1934, the 1938 lettuceworkers'strike,even secretmeetyieldedfinephotoings of the SouthernTenant Farmers'Union. Some of theseefforts
none
that
the
of
but
feel
collective
resistance.
delivered
graphs,
During the 1930s Californiaexperiencedepisodesof themostintenseclass conflictin U.S. history,
oftencalled
war in thefields.California'sbig growersused everyavailablemeansof law,violence,and
intimidationto preventfarm-worker
unionization.Lange'sportraitsof individualleaders
and militantsin thesestruggles,
such as Tom Mooney and H. L. Mitchellof the SouthernTenant Farmers'Union, are vibrantlysympathetic.But, on the whole, thesephototo getclose to theaction.68Symgraphsareamong herweakest.No doubt it was difficult
65On FlorenceLoeb Kellogg'srequest,see Cara A. Finnegan,Picturing
PrintCultureand FSAPhotographs
Poverty:
and RichardWright'suse of FSAphotographs,
see Clara Wakehamto Jack
(Washington,2003), 74. On Stryker
reel1), RoyStryker
Delano, April3, 1941 (microfilm:
Papers(microfilm
copyin LibraryofCongress,Washington,
A FolkHistory
D.C.). RichardWright,12 MillionBlackVoices:
oftheNegroin theUnitedStates(New York,1941).
66
and 'Natural'DisasterRelief,"307; Natanson,66-67.
Landis,"Fate,Responsibility,
67DorotheaLange,"ATractorPioneerof theMississippiDelta,"June1937, photograph,
LC-USF347-017138Collection.
C, FSA-OWI
I wouldadd thatmostphotographers
did notevenattemptphotographs
oforganizedprotest.Sally
68In fairness,
fromPictorialism:
NotableContinuitiesin theModernizationofCaliforniaPhotography,"
in CapStein,"Starting
ed. Drew HeathJohnson(Oakland, 2001).
1850 tothePresent,
ofCalifornia
turing
Light:Masterpieces
Photography,
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December2006
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
726
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Oakland
Figure11. "Dairy Coop Officials."1935. PhotobyDorotheaLange. Courtesy
MuseumofCalifornia,TheDorotheaLangeCollection,
A6713735132.1.
such as Lange may have shied away fromexposingthe strikers'
patheticphotographers
violenceor even the chantingand shoutingthatoftenrendersfacesas distorted.Nicholas Natansonwrote(of anotherphotographer),
"an angrycamerabecomesa demeaning
camera.""69
Moreover,the PopularFrontand the New Deal emphasizedunity,not conreasons:theformerto createthelargestpossiblecoalitionagainst
flict,albeitfordifferent
the
latter
to
Nazism,
getitsagenda throughCongress.After1935, eventheCommunist
withdrew
its
active
party
supportof farmworkers.
I suspectthatLange was uncomfortable
withovertclassconflict,and Taylorstrengthworkersened thatpoliticaltemperment.
Theirgoal-governmentcampsformigratory
conflicts
of interest.Consciousofthebig growers'powerand fearrequiredsoft-pedaling
fulofwhathe saw as Communistexploitationofworkers,
Taylorconsistently
arguedthat
strife."
He
would
benefit
"labor
everyoneby eliminating
supported
governmentcamps
his argumentbyquotingbothsides:"Marysvillegrower:'Give themgood placesto camp
and you'llneverhave a strike.'Marysvillefruitpicker:'If folkshas a decentplace to live
and can gitworktherewon'tbe no reasonto strike."'The campswould remedy"themenace of theexistingsituationto health,moralsand industrialpeace."70
69Natanson,Black
Imagein theNew Deal, 26.
70Taylor,"Operationofcampsformigrants
in Californiaagriculture,"
memo,Aug.3, 1935,box 1, I. W. Wood
Library).
Papers(Bancroft
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The Photographer
as Agricultural
Sociologist
727
the conditionsin which farmworkershad to
Lange condemnedwithoutreservation
workand live,but she was willingto producephotographicadvertisements
forFSAprojects. There was an aroma of rescuemissionin the way she and Taylor foughtfor the
camps. Still,thatmissionwas also a utopian aspiration-to providethe freespace and
minimallydecentlivingconditionsthatcould allow thefarmworkersto become citizens,
not so much legallybut civilly;thatis, to become people withrights.Carol Shloss argues
forthatside of theirvisionof thecamps: "in a worldwherethestatehas become a private
police state,the onlyfreedomis to be foundin enclosure,in space thatprotectspeople
fromthevigilanceof thosewho want to frighten
theminto quietnessand submission."
Other scholars,however,have noted the controllingas well as the protectingaspect of
thesecamps. The geographerDon Mitchellcomparescamp "democracy"to the exercise
of studentgovernmentin highschools-the managersalwaysretainedultimatecontrol.
Yet AssociatedFarmers,the organizationbig growersformedto stop farm-worker
organizing,neverstoppedtryingto forcethefedsto close thecamps.7 Thathostilitycan serve
as a reminderthatthewar in the fieldswas not exclusivelya two-sidedstruggleand that
some in the FSAweretryingto erodethegrowers'tyranny
overmigrantworkers.But the
never
have
than
could
done
more
relieve
camps
symptoms;and theyservedonly a fraction of thefarmworkerswho needed them.
This essay is a byproductof my work on a biographyof Lange. In undertakingthat
project,I did not imaginethat I would have to educate myself(howeverinadequately)
about depression-era
agriculture.It is Lange's workthatforcedthose lessons upon me.
She foughtforherentiredocumentarycareerto preventherphotographsfrombecoming
decontextualizedand universalized.She was continuallyinfuriatedthatherboss would
not allow her to retainher own negativesand supplyphotographsdirectlyto publications,so as to groupand captionthemin an attemptto controltheirmeaning.Because of
thatfrustration,
she triedin herlateryearsto concentrateon photoessays,withwhichshe
could tella story.But she could notgetmostofthempublished,so herworkcontinuesto
leak out todayalmostexclusively
as single,captionlessphotographs.In October 2005 her
men
at
a
of
kitchen
sold at auctionfor$822,400, at thattime the secsoup
photograph
ever
for
a
paid
photograph.72
ond-highestprice
Lange would haveenjoyedthemoney(she
earnedverylittlein herlifetime)and thefame(shewas underrecognizedin herlifetime),
but shewould certainlyhavequestionedwhatit meantthata photographofhungrymen
had become a luxurycommodity.
71 Carol Shloss,In Visible
and theAmericanWriter,
1840-1940 (New York,1987), 224. Don
Light:Photography
and theCaliforniaLandscape(Minneapolis,1996), 186. JohnSteinMitchell,TheLie oftheLand: MigrantWorkers
beckdescribedAssociatedFarmersthus:"AssociatedFarmers,
whichpresumesto speakforthefarmsof California
toilersas chain banks,public utilities,railroadcompaniesand those
and whichis made up of such earth-stained
calledland companies."JohnSteinbeck,"Starvationunderthe OrangeTrees,"Monterey
Trader,
hugecorporations
April15, 1938.
72"Art
MarketWatch,"artnetMagazine,
Oct. 14,2005, http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artmarketwatch
/artmarketwatchl0-14-05.asp.
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