John Vachon

John Vachon was one of the stable of amazing photographers who worked for the Farm Security Administration, traveling the country and documenting hard times in the Great Depression - as well as the government's attempts to remedy the hard times. You can read his bio on Wikipedia.

Here are a few of his works. I'll be posting more in coming days.

Commuters waiting for south-bound trains, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

Here's what I love about this photo: on lower left is seen (rather dimly) a chain-link fence, and on upper right the shadow of that fence stipples the top of the train. Brilliant artistic framing in this photo.

  Girls on main street, Watertown, Wisconsin, 1941

Striking realty workers, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

In the last photo I love that the group of strikers is multiracial - definitely progressive for the times. It looks also as if there is a group of women pickets on the far right of the photo, so it's truly an inclusive protest!