These blacks are fishing near cotton plantations outside of Belonzi, Mississippi. As a Farm Security Administration (FSA), documentary photographer, Marion Post Wolcott made clear that she was committed to changing the attitudes of the American people by capturing the reality of rural America in the Great Depression and it effects on blacks and those already in poverty. While this image of fishing in a bucolic setting doesn't speak of poverty and hardship, many other images in her collection speak more directly to Wolcott's goals. Her FSA work shows the contrast of wealthy and poor, migrant farmers in their shacks, affluent people at a horse race, and the poor standing in line for their wages.

After training as a teacher, Wolcott worked in a small Massachusetts town and the experience gave her some of the living reality of the Depression and poverty. The school closed and she went to Europe to visit her sister who was studying with Trude Fleischmann, a Viennese photographer.

Fleischmann advised Wolcott to continue her pursuit of photography after seeing some of her images. Some time after returning to the United States, she went to work for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, which managed to keep sending her on assignments to do "ladies stories." She met FSA photographer's Ralph Steiner and Paul Strand at the New York Photo League, and they encouraged her to take her portfolio to Roy Stryker, head of the Farm Security Administration. He hired her immediately and her FSA career began.

In the related items below you will see "Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943." This beautiful book is the fully illustrated story of the creation and contributions of the FSA and its successor agency, the Office of War Information (OWI).

Medium : 1 slide : color

Created/Published : June, 1940

Creator : Marion Post Wolcott, 1910-1990, photographer

Part of the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection housed in the Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

Availability: Usually ships in one week

Product #: fsac1a34331