Just Before the War : Urban America from 1935 to 1941 as Seen By Photographers of the Farm Security Administration : From the Collections of The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Review

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(More customer reviews)I wasn't aware until recently that this was available as a book. The copy I have is a catalog to a 1968 exhibition of FSA photos at the Newport Harbor Art Museum. It has fifty-six photos by fifteen photographers, impressively printed in 200dpi but the really interesting thing about the publication are the seven pages of Roy Stryker's shooting scripts.

Good as the FSA photographers were I feel it wasn't just their creativity that created thousands of memorable images, Stryker's shooting script made them focus on what was required so that eventually the FSA collection became the most complete photo coverage of any nation at a particularly trying time.
Though there are only seven pages devoted to the scripts what is included is pretty impressive, a section called Highway details sixty-seven visual situations to look for, Small Towns lists twenty-six, Railroads includes over seventy items to photograph, American Habit again has over seventy. The book also includes interviews with Arthur Rothstein, John Vachon and Roy Stryker. The back includes a list of the 256 photos in the original exhibition with detailed captions and Library of Congress catalog numbers.
Despite being only seventy pages long I've always treasured this little catalog, it seems to embody the spirit and integrity of the FSA collection and I think it well worth searching out.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

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