This striking picture, while appearing to be shot in black and white, was actually shot with color film by John Vachon. The working conditions of the plant must have been extreme to be covered with so much residue after a work shift.

John Vachon, the photographer, started at the Farm Security Administration (FSA) as an "assistant messenger" who had just arrived from his native Minnesota to attend college. His task was to maintain the FSA photographic files. His interest in photography grew and Roy Emerson Stryker, the creator of the unit told him, "When you do the filing, why don't you look at the pictures."

Starting with no photographic experience, Vachon had the good fortune to have the likes of Ben Shahn, Walker Evans and Arthur Rothstein to guide him through the beginning steps. Vachon received little in the way of specifics as to what he was to photograph.

Starting in Omaha he fashioned an ongoing and complex story of the contrast of wealth and poverty by taking pictures of everyday people and events. From 1936 to 1943, John Vachon traveled across America as part of the FSA photography project and he documented the desperation he saw in the world of the Great Depression and the peoples resistance to the heavy hands of industry. His portraits of black and white Americans are among the very best images created by the FSA.

The Office of War Information (OWI) was created in 1942 and served as an important U.S. government propaganda agency during World War II. Stryker's section at the OWI had been transferred from the Department of Agriculture's Farm Security Administration (FSA) in late 1942. Stryker's FSA section is the source of a world-famous collection of documentary photographs.

Altogether, the combined FSA-OWI collection of photographs at the Library of Congress numbers about 108,000, most of which are in black-and-white.

"Bound for Glory," the book listed below, is a comprehensive collection of FSA photographs with text.

Medium : 1 photograph

Created/Published : 1942, Sunray, Texas

Creator : John Vachon, photographer, 1914-1975

Part of the FSA/OWI collection housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

Availability: Usually ships in one to two weeks

Product #: fsala35446