American Culture, FSA, Russell Lee

WATER WORKED

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Segregated facilities, Oklahoma City, OK, 1939


Lee was hyper aware of the segregatation of the south. He repeatedly photographed it when he en=countered it. Since mostof his 1930s work was done of people laboring, he constantly interacted with Latino and African-American people.
Did his photography get seen.
Director Roy Stryker of the Historic Unit of the FSA hesitated but went ahead with the distribution of images like the oner above.
Fully aware that the funding for the FSA project came from Congress and that nearly a third of the House was segregationist, Stryker exposed himself to being de-platformed by this southern block, which, as the 30s went on, became a running battle leading all the way up to World War II.
Did it get published?
Yes, occasionally and only in the northern and far western press.
It was a beginning, leading the public forward 15 years to the first major Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In a way, Lee, fully aware, was not only shooting “hard times,” but, in his mind, “better times.”





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New Mexico, Russell Lee, The Depression

MOO (FOR ME?): BETHEL, NEW MEXICO

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Posted by Bruce Berman

Dairy cow in Bethel, New Mexico, July 2010

©Bruce Berman

Text by Bruce Berman
Milk was available in New Mexico during the Great Depression, although not always accessible to everyone. 
The Depression significantly impacted New Mexico’s economy, affecting both dairy farmers and consumers. While some individuals and families might have struggled to afford milk, it was still produced and distributed to some degree. 
Dairies still exist in New Mexico but the privately-owned dairies –like everything else– are rapidly disappearing.

Tags: 1930’s Photography, New Mexico, U.S.60

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Documentary photography, FSA, Russell Lee

PLAYING POST OFFICE

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Posted by Bruce Berman in New Mexico, Rural America, Russell Lee Biography, Russell Lee’s Road

Bulletin Board in Post Office Showing a Large Collection of

“Wanted Men” Signs, Ames, Iowa, 1936, by Russell Lee

Little American Flags, cut up and turned sideways,

Post Office in Garfield, New Mexico,

May 2010, by Bruce Berman

Iola Alvarez, Postmistress of Garfield, NM

She holds a 1922 postal register, May 2010

by ©Bruce Berman

by Bruce Berman

It’s probably hard to believe it, but I never saw this image of Russell Lee’s until this morning. This keeps happening. It either means I’m an unoriginal wannabe, or that there is still a lot out there that is similar to what used to be out there, and it’s still good “Cannon Fodder,” for a photographer.

The Postmistress, Iola Alvarez, in Garfield, New Mexico, claims these mailboxes were first installed in 1919.

New Post Office rules require that no one can look into another person’s mailbox,” so, says Iola, “I covered them up a “few years ago.”

Ila Alvarez has been at her current job in Garfield since 1988.

She loved the old mailboxes so she found a magazine, bought several issues, cut up the pictures of American flags that she found on its pages, snipped out the “stripes,” and turned them vertically and taped them into each box.

Problem solved. History preserved. A touch of patriotism achieved with a “defaced,” flag.

No peekers.

1919 mailboxes still going.

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Tags: 1930’s Photography, New Mexico, Russell Lee, Small Town Americ

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Americana, New Mexico, Russell Lee

QUEENS: OLD AND YOUNG

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Posted by Bruce Berman  

2010-2011 Queen of Heritage Days (and her son Lorenzo),

Darlene Pino, Magdalena, NM, July 2010

©Bruce Berman

October 1938. “Princesses on float at the National Rice Festival parade.

Crowley, Louisiana by Russell Lee for the FSA.

Text by Bruce Berman

Russell Lee went to a lot of parades, festivals and public events. So do I. Most information-oriented photographers do. It’s a good place to shoot because people are busy having fun, not thinking too much about what purpose a photographer might have for the photographs and a good photographer can come home with a lot of images that show people doing things, living life, interacting.

Some call this Street Photography.

One thing about the two photographs above that are interesting to me: the “Queens,” in the Lee photographs are young. In mine, the Queen is in her sixties. The places I went in New Mexico did seem older. People, in the country, perhaps, were mostly Baby Boomers. There are young people in the rural areas of New Mexico but they reportedly head to the cities looking for work, and, perhaps, excitement. Some head to college and never return.

Whether my experiences can be substantiated by data, I’m not sure. Doesn’t matter because that’s not how I work, anyway.

I don’t go out to gather facts and data. I hunt for  “feel,” and impression and, in the end, moments of magic. Whatever the facts are I can live with th the one you can read in a photograph. I do believe what I see and I see that rural, New Mexico and Texas is ageing.  Perhaps it was this way  in Russell Lee’s era, but I doubt.

My next step will be to go to more cities that Lee visited, places I know the young population of America has attracted, places that attracted Lee in his youth -Chicago, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Kansas City- and see if my theory “holds wa

Tags: New Mexico, Russell Lee, Small Town contests, U.S.60

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AGRICULTURE, FSA, Russell Lee

BEANS: PIE TOWN

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Posted by Bruce Berma

Homesteader Bill Stagg with pinto beans, 1940, Pie Town, NM

Photograph by Russell Lee

by Mary Lamonica

Russell and Jean Lee were attracted to Pie Town, New Mexico in June 1940 for the same reasons tourists are today: the town’s quirky name on a map attracts attention. And, they heard you really could get pie. But the Lees, like tourists today, had a long drive to get there. The town is located 80 miles west of Socorro on Hwy 60. It’s another 70 miles to the Arizona border. The drive is a scenic one, however, with ranch land, Pinon Pine and Junipers dotting the landscape. An occasional antelope or deer may bound by. (more…)

Tags: 1930’s Photography, Farm Security Administration (FSA), New Mexico, Russell Lee

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Documentary photography, FSA, Russell Lee

HORSE POWER AND MULE POWER: JIM’S TRUCK

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Posted by Bruce Berman

Jim and Jimbo Williams, Magdalena, NM , July 10, 2010, ©Bruce Berman

Jim and Jimbo Williams are from Quemado, New Mexico and are ranchers. Jim, left, restored his 1951 International Harvester truck over a ten year period until, “It runs like a top.”

New Mexico, 1940. A time in which

homesteaders still used burros/donkeys as a means of transportation,
Photograph by Russell Lee

Jim Williams’ grandmother, and Jimbo’s great grandmother, Eleanor Heacock (Williams) is the subject of a famous photograph taken by Russell Lee for the FSA, at their Rising Sun Ranch. The Lee photograph depicts Miss Heacock riding a mule in a race.

He and his father Jim are aware of  Russell Lee and Jim “treasures the photograph.” The name of their ranch, and where the famous phoitograph was taken, is called the Rising Star Ranch.

The grant that has made this project possible is called The Rising Star Grant.

Whoa.

I have no idea what all that means!

Tags: 1930’s Photography, Farm Security Administration (FSA), New Mexico, Russell Lee, U.S.60

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Documentary photography, New Mexico, Russell Lee

Post Number One: Searching For Russell Lee

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U.S. 60 West near Magdalena, New Mexico – May 2010
©Bruce Berman

May 2010

This is the highway west of Magdalena, New Mexico, heading to Datil and Pie Town. This is a road that Russell Lee traveled many times, I am sure, when he needed to resupply himself for his adventure in Pie Town, 70 miles to the west. He came back down this road, kept going, and got re-stocked in Socorro. In 1937, the road was dirt. Now it’s two lane blacktop. Traffic is sparse. The land does not feel desolate, but it is vast. Today, when heading west up into the mountains it’s not easy to even remember the brutal Interstate or the homogenizing Walmart world you’ve left behind.

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