The FSA and Magnum agencies
"The Farm Security Administration and Magnum are two most significant agencies in the development of documentary photography"In this essay I will discuss the importance of these two associations, I will try to cover the main reasons for their existence and try to understand what this existence has done for society. Even though these two agencies were both set up to feed society with information using visual photography, the style and aims were very different. First of all, I will talk about the FSA, who brought it about? and how it was controlled?The Farm Security Administration was created in the department of agriculture in 1937. The FSA was a new deal program along with the RA (Resettlement Administration) designed to assist poor farmers during the Dust Bowl and the great depression. Many photographers were involved within the FSA including: Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Russell Lee, Howard Lieberman, and Edwin Locke. An important figure for the FSA was Roy Stryker who was head of a special photographic section in the RA and FSA from 1935-1942. Roy Stryker's unit was sent out on assignments throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The office distributed photographic equipment and film, drew up b
And Bourke-White managed to get herself where things were happening when they were happening by working hard being lucky and by her piercing intelligence and intuition. From the research that I managed to get about Bourke-White she came across as being an incredibly hard worker with legendary stamina and perseverance, she was also charismatic and, by all accounts, beautiful. I ask for comprehension, understanding and openness. Inevitably, people wanted to help her, giving her story leads and access. On top of all this, she had an exalted view of the role of the photographer as witness and felt that "getting there" and sending back the word was a privilege and duty. During an eight year span the section created the 77,000 black-and-white photographs and 644 coloured, for which it is now world famous for. Photographers were encouraged to record anything that might shed additional light on the topic that they were photographing, and they received training in making personal contacts and interviewing people. The resulting captions were edited at the photographic unit's headquarters. "-Margaret Bourke-White's "Portrait of Myself" Like most photographers, she had the ability to focus her personality on the getting of the photograph - by being persuasive, charming, persistent, manipulative, whatever it took. What I personally like about Sebastiao Salgado is his out look on life which really reflects onto his work, photographs like 'sugar cutting',- 'A worker in the oil fields of Kuwait' and the photographs of slaves 'Serra Pelado' have a biblical almost religious meaning to the photographs. Fishermen fighting with their prey as they make the catch, Fire-fighters in Kuwait bemused and blackened by the ferocity of their task during the Gulf War or even workers tiresome expressions after another exhausting day. All of his work show powerful images of struggling families in poor countries, young children and anything that would provoke a reaction anything that would open your eyes. (as a photographer) I could share the things I saw and learned. udgets, allocated travel funds, hired staff, developed, printed, and numbered most negatives, reviewed developed film, edited photographers' captions written in the field, and maintained files of negatives, prints, and captions. Most of the time the photographers mailed their exposed negatives to the photographic unit's lab in Washington for developing, numbering and printing.
Common topics in this essay:
Puerto Rico,
Bourke-White's Portrait,
Salgado Magnum,
Sebastiao Salgado,
Margaret Bourke-White's,
Administration Magnum,
Gulf War,
Chim Seymour,
Margaret Bourke-White,
Security Administration,
photographic unit's,
farm security,
world war,
sebastiao salgado,
selected images,
photographic equipment,
farm security administration,
office distributed,
security administration,
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Acceptance Essays
