Picturing Migrants: The Grapes of Wrath and New Deal Documentary Photography | Agenda Bookshop Skip to content
Selected Colleen Hoover Books at €9.99c | In-store & Online
Selected Colleen Hoover Books at €9.99c | In-store & Online
A01=James R. Swensen
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_James R. Swensen
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=ACX
Category=AJ
Category=HBJK
Category=HBLW
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Language_English
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
softlaunch

Picturing Migrants: The Grapes of Wrath and New Deal Documentary Photography

English

By (author): James R. Swensen

As time passes, personal memories of the Great Depression die with those who lived through the desperate 1930s. In the absence of firsthand knowledge, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and the photographs produced for the New Deal's Farm Security Administration (FSA) now provide most of the images that come to mind when we think of the 1930s. That novel and those photographs, as this book shows, share a history. Fully exploring this complex connection for the first time, Picturing Migrants offers new insight into Steinbeck's novel and the FSA's photography - and into the circumstances that have made them enduring icons of the Depression.

Looking at the work of Dorothea Lange, Horace Bristol, Arthur Rothstein, and Russell Lee, it is easy to imagine that these images came straight out of the pages of The Grapes of Wrath. This should be no surprise, James R. Swensen tells us, because Steinbeck explicitly turned to photographs of the period to create his visceral narrative of hope and loss among Okie migrants in search of a better life in California. When the novel became an instant best seller upon its release in April 1939, some dismissed its imagery as pure fantasy. Lee knew better and traveled to Oklahoma for proof. The documentary pictures he produced are nothing short of a photographic illustration of the hard lives and desperate reality that Steinbeck so vividly portrayed. In Picturing Migrants, Swensen sets these lesser-known images alongside the more familiar work of Lange and others, giving us a clearer understanding of the FSA's work to publicize the plight of the migrant in the wake of the novel and John Ford's award-winning film adaptation.

A new perspective on an era whose hardships and lessons resonate to this day, Picturing Migrants lets us see as never before how a novel and a series of documentary photographs have kept the Great Depression unforgettably real for generation after generation. See more
Current price €33.14
Original price €38.99
Save 15%
A01=James R. SwensenAge Group_UncategorizedAuthor_James R. Swensenautomatic-updateCategory1=Non-FictionCategory=ACXCategory=AJCategory=HBJKCategory=HBLWCOP=United StatesDelivery_Delivery within 10-20 working daysLanguage_EnglishPA=AvailablePrice_€20 to €50PS=Activesoftlaunch
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
Product Details
  • Weight: 1374g
  • Dimensions: 216 x 279mm
  • Publication Date: 30 Oct 2015
  • Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
  • Publication City/Country: United States
  • Language: English
  • ISBN13: 9780806148274

About James R. Swensen

James R. Swensen is Assistant Professor of Art History and the History of Photography at Brigham Young University Provo Utah.

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue we'll assume that you are understand this. Learn more
Accept