The Great Depression in Color

Roger Nusbaum, in his respected personal finance blog Random Roger, did a very unlikely, yet entirely admirable thing in comments he posted today on his site. He discussed color photographs taken during the later years of the Great Depression in the United States. He also included a link to a Denver Post blog that shows the images.

The pictures originally appeared in a 2006 Library of Congress exhibit called "Bound for Glory: America in Color." My favorite so far (shown above) is #18, Russell Lee's "saying grace before the barbeque dinner at the New Mexico Fair." The principal subjects possess an uncalculated modesty, while remaining rooted in their worldly concerns. The secondary subjects inhabit the frame, but appear to be independent of the major figures. Lee's willingness to have multiple, barely joined subjects in the frame seems surprisingly tangent to contemporary visual sensibilities.

I hope you take a few minutes to enjoy these explorations in color photography.