Re: [Leica] Re: Lenswork Magazine

[Carl Pultz <cpultz@earthlink.net>]

Folks,

Good discussion regarding propaganda vs. documentary. Since I've read a lot 
about Walker Evans, and so also learned a bit about the Historical Section 
of the Resettlement Administration, later absorbed by the Farm Security 
Administration, let me add a few things.

Yes, the day to day purpose of the project was to document the challenges 
faced by farmers and residents of small towns during a period of economic 
collapse, and promote the successes of RA policies, by providing images to 
the hungry photo news magazines. The new medium of photo-reportage was an 
excellent way to share the reality of lives that were invisible to much of 
the populace and generate support for helping them out. It was also the 
time when the transition from the old agrarian life was being replaced by 
industrialization, and farming was being corporatized and moved west. So it 
was a perfect opportunity to generate an archive of photos depicting that 
transition and documenting the old ways before they disappeared.

It's pretty plain that both ideas were considered important, with the 
propaganda aspect growing as the New Deal programs were being challenged by 
reactionaries in Congress, and the Historical Section itself was pressed 
for funds. (Some things never change.)

To varying degrees, the photographers charted their own courses between 
what was asked of them and what they delivered. The mandate was quite 
loosely defined most of the time. Evans set the stylistic tenor of the 
project and was also influential in forming it's concepts. He made it plain 
- - "No Politics whatever;" the value of the archive, for propaganda or 
history, would be it's artistic/documentary integrity. We once had a 
government that would consider such a thing.

Evans had his own aesthetic and historical agenda, and eventually lost the 
job because he refused to do the hack work the agency needed. Lange and 
others were more socially/politically motivated, believing their work could 
make a difference, and they set out to do so. Many would have whether they 
were RA employees or not. They were a part of a very broad trend of 
artists, composers and writers who heard the same call, when many hoped 
that the moment held the opportunity to create a more just society. These 
weren't people with a uniform shared ideology, though many were branded as 
generic pinkos by later historical rewrites. (Some things never change.)

That the work sometimes betrayed biases in the way it contrived to tell a 
story or portray a symbol does not mean that there was anything purposely 
false or dishonest (a secondary definition for propaganda?) in what was put 
out to the public. We know how hard it is to control the narrative a viewer 
will put to a photograph. It's not really a very good use for photography, 
but the medium was still young and such things as endemic manipulation 
weren't (aren't!) sorted out. At the time, Photographs were considered 
Truth, the words virtually sonominous. And, the content of the work 
released by the HS was considered, and intended to be, honest.

Until, that is, the great skeleton caper. It's worth looking up the story 
in detail, but to summarize: Arthur Rothstein found the sun-bleached skull 
of a steer and carried it around to use as an exposure reference, a white 
card. Eventually, it appeared in a photo of the parched floor of the 
Badlands, and what a perfect bit of symbolism it seemed to an editor back 
in Washington. They sent it out and it was published.

That's when it hit the fan. You won't find cattle in the Badlands! 
Political enemies howled and had a field day, calling into question the 
honesty and motivations of the project, liberally deploying the P word, 
using the innocent indiscretion as a weapon against FDR. (Some things never 
change!) Clearly it was a mistake, but not poor Arthur's.

Anyway, if anyone is still awake, I wanted to fill in a little history in 
case you didn't know about it. The project had a higher purpose than simply 
waving the pendent of the FSA or polishing the lustre of Roosevelt. Many of 
the contradictions the HS project encountered are still faced today every 
time we use a camera to document. All the truth a photo can contain will 
not prevent it's use as propaganda.

Carl

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