Picturing migrants : The grapes of wrath and New Deal documentary photography

Resource Information

The work Picturing migrants : The grapes of wrath and New Deal documentary photography represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of San Diego Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Picturing migrants : The grapes of wrath and New Deal documentary photography

Title remainder

The grapes of wrath and New Deal documentary photography

Statement of responsibility

James R. Swensen

Creator

• Swensen, James R

Author

• Swensen, James R

Subject

• Documentary photography
• Documentary photography -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Dokumentarfotografie
• Dust Bowl Era (1931-1939)
• Dust Bowl Era, 1931-1939
• Grapes of wrath (Steinbeck, John)
• History
• History -- Sources
• Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
• Literature and photography
• Literature and photography -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Migrant agricultural laborers
• Migrant agricultural laborers -- United States -- History
• New Deal
• New Deal (1933-1939)
• New Deal, 1933-1939
• Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968
• Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968
• Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968
• Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968 -- Influence
• Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968 -- Sources
• USA
• United States
• United States, Farm Security Administration
• United States, Farm Security Administration
• Depressions
• Depressions -- 1929 -- United States

Genre

• History

Language

eng

Summary

"As time passes, personal memories of the Great Depression die with those who lived through the desperate 1930s. In the absence of firsthand knowledge, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and the photographs produced for the New Deal's Farm Security Administration (FSA) now provide most of the images that come to mind when we think of the 1930s. That novel and those photographs, as this book shows, share a history. Fully exploring this complex connection for the first time, Picturing Migrants offers new insight into Steinbeck's novel and the FSA's photography--and into the circumstances that have made them enduring icons of the Depression. Looking at the work of Dorothea Lange, Horace Bristol, Arthur Rothstein, and Russell Lee, it is easy to imagine that these images came straight out of the pages of The Grapes of Wrath. This should be no surprise, James R. Swensen tells us, because Steinbeck explicitly turned to photographs of the period to create his visceral narrative of hope and loss among Okie migrants in search of a better life in California. When the novel became an instant best seller upon its release in April 1939, some dismissed its imagery as pure fantasy. Lee knew better and traveled to Oklahoma for proof. The documentary pictures he produced are nothing short of a photographic illustration of the hard lives and desperate reality that Steinbeck so vividly portrayed. In Picturing Migrants, Swensen sets these lesser-known images alongside the more familiar work of Lange and others, giving us a clearer understanding of the FSA's work to publicize the plight of the migrant in the wake of the novel and John Ford's award-winning film adaptation. A new perspective on an era whose hardships and lessons resonate to this day, Picturing Migrants lets us see as never before how a novel and a series of documentary photographs have kept the Great Depression unforgettably real for generation after generation."--Book jacket

Member of

• Charles M. Russell Center series on art and photography of the American West, v. 18

Cataloging source

DLC

Government publication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

PS3537.T3234

LC item number

G893 2015

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

The Charles M. Russell Center series on art and photography of the American West

Series volume

volume 18