Depictions of the Great Depression Essay -- Art, Photography

Pause to recall a picture of the swell Depression. Was this image blissful or sad? Maybe it was a scene of a family enjoying the radio, children reading comics, a group of young men playing baseball, the movie theatre, or withal children playing Monopoly however more or less people would picture a migrant mother with her children, an adult holding a sign asking for a job, a family living in a shack with barely any food, or starving, dirty children. For those born after the 1930s, the long Depression is something that can be image only through photography and film (This Great Nation Will Endure) and when asked What picture do you think of when you hear the words the Great Depression age? all thirty high school students recalled a negative image. Todays muss medias selection of harsh extreme images of the 1930s Great Depression Era fail to portray the positive aspects of American sprightliness during the time period. Many of the photographs exposed by todays media and some of t he most popular photographs of life during the Great Depression were produced by the FSA or Farm Security Administration. Founded by President Roosevelt the government agencys goal was to return loans benefiting tenant farmers and sharecroppers (pg. 772). The FSA launched a photography project whose mission was to demonstrate the hardships of families living on farms to the city residents (Ganzel). The agency hired many photographers and over eighty-thousand photographs were captured through the historic period 1935-1943 the majority portrayed American life in a negative way (This Great Nation Will Endure). Two of the most well-known photographs taken by the agency, also which are used in several American history textbooks are icons of the Depression Era. Both symboliz... ...produced, radio shows and movies were being produced and several Americans were enjoying life during the 1930s. These positive aspects of life and positive photographs of the time period are not well-known t o the American public today and many people picture the Great Depression only in a negative way. For those born after the 1930s, the Great Depression is something that can be visualized only though photography and film. Certain images have come to define our view of that uncertain time an anxious migrant mother with her three small children a farmer and his sons seek through a dust storm a family of sharecroppers gathered outside their Spartan home (This Great Nation Will Endure). Todays mass media focuses on the harsh, extreme images of the Great Depression and fails to portray the happy, positive aspects of American life during the 1930s.