Author details value of photographs

Posted on by Collegian Admin

By Rachel Clark/reporter

In Dorothea Lange’s March 1936 portrait, a mother, 32, and two of her seven hungry children from Nipomo, Calif., wait for the father’s return form work in the fields. Such scenes were common during the Depression as wages were low and food was scarce. Migrant families often survived by crowding in tattered makeshift shelters along irrigation ditches and endured unsanitary living conditions. An exhibit of Depression-era photographs are in the NSTU Center Corner on NE Campus through March 9.
In Dorothea Lange’s March 1936 portrait, a mother, 32, and two of her seven hungry children from Nipomo, Calif., wait for the father’s return form work in the fields. Such scenes were common during the Depression as wages were low and food was scarce. Migrant families often survived by crowding in tattered makeshift shelters along irrigation ditches and endured unsanitary living conditions. An exhibit of Depression-era photographs are in the NSTU Center Corner on NE Campus through March 9.

The community has the opportunity to view vanishing traces of U.S. history, an author told a NE audience last week.

Michael Lesy, author of A Long Time Coming—A Photographic Portrait of America 1935-1943, spoke Feb. 9 on NE Campus in association with the FDR pictorial exhibit, This Great Nation Will Endure: Photographs of the Great Depression.

The national touring exhibit consists of pictures taken by the Farm Security Administration of people in varying conditions during the great depression.

“ They [The FSA photographs] tell us stuff about that past that we could never have even figured out how to ask questions about,” Lesy said. “They are just self-evident, but they’re also mysterious.”

The photographs, which were originally taken for politically driven reasons, depict life during Depression-era America. The FSA lenses captured everything from migrant farm workers and children at play to funerals and musical celebrations.

Lesy said the nostalgia of the time is emotionally balanced in the sobering images.

“ That’s the beauty of the photograph,” he said. “It has emotional power. It goes into your eyes, and then it branches. The impulses go toward your heart and your mind simultaneously, so they affect you intellectually and emotionally.”

In addition to Lesy’s writing endeavors, he is also a photographer. He said having experience with both mediums gives him a unique perspective on the exhibit and its purpose.

“ The thing itself is what everyone is trying to get to. It’s like trying to touch something wearing gloves,” he said. “So, in one case words are the gloves. In another case, images are the gloves. But in that naked, strange, mysterious thing called being alive, we have these imperfect instruments. One is photography; one is writing. They both try to tell the whole truth.”

Lesy’s presentation and the photo exhibit are co-sponsored by the NE Campus history department and student activities.

The exhibit is on display in the NSTU Center Corner through March 9.