John Vachon's America
Subtitle: Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War II (Ahmanson-Murphy Fine Arts Book)
Contributors: Miles Orvell (Editor)
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: December 12, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 354
ISBN-13: 9780520223783
Subjects: American history: from c 1900 -; Biography: general; Essays, journals, letters & other prose works; Photographs: collections; Social conditions; Inter-war period, 1918-1939; Second World War, 1939-1945; Correspondence; United States; Vachon, John,; 20th century; Photographers; History - U.S.; History - General History; Art; United States - 20th Century (1900-1945); USA; Documentary photography; Individual Photographer; Photojournalism; Art / General; 1933-1945; Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions; History - General; Pictorial works; 1914-1975; History
Description: "From 1936 to 1943 John Vachon traveled across America as part of the Farm Security Administration's photography project, documenting the desperate world of the Great Depression and also the efforts at resistance - from stoic determination to strikes. This collection, the first to feature Vachon's work, offers a record of this extraordinary photographer's vision and of America's land and people as the country moved from the depths of the Depression to the dramatic mobilization for World War II.

Vachon's portraits of white and black Americans are among the most affecting that FSA photographers produced; and his portrayals of the American landscape, from rural scenes to small towns and urban centers, present a remarkable visual account of these pivotal years, in a style that is transitional from Walker Evans to Robert Frank."

"Vachon nurtured a lifelong ambition to be a writer and the intimate and revealing letters he wrote from the field to his wife back home reflect vividly on American conditions, on movies and jazz, on landscape, and on his job fulfilling the directives from Washington to capture the heart of America. Together these letters and photographs along with journal entries and other writings by Vachon constitute a multifaceted biography of this remarkable photographer and a unique look at the years he captured in such unforgettable images."--Jacket.