May 07, 2020 - Sale 2534

Sale 2534 - Lot 361

Unsold
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Group of 3 Farm Security Administration photographs of Southern tenant farmers. Gelatin silver prints, 8 x 10 inches, each with Farm Security Administration inked stamps and caption information on verso. Vp, [1937] and 1939

Additional Details

During the Great Depression, photographers from the federal Works Progress Administration were sent south to document living conditions. These images by two renowned white photographers capture the spirit of the times. Includes two by Marion Post, both taken in Mileston, MS north of Yazoo City in October-November 1939. One is captioned "Negro day laborers coming in trucks from the fields after cotton picking to be paid off at plantation store," and the other bears a similar caption but specifies "Marcella Plantation." The final photograph is by Arthur Rothstein, and is captioned simply "Old Negro, Gee's Bend, Alabama." Rothstein did his well-known work at Gee's Bend in early 1937. Provenance: estate of the author Richard Wright, who had them from his collaboration with Edwin Rosskam on the book 12 Million Black Voices.