Picturing a Nation: The Great Depression’s Finest Photographers Introduce America to Itself

Under the aegis of the Farm Security Administration’s Historical Section, photographers—including Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, and Ben Shahn—captured images that became iconic emblems of their time. In this volume, Sandler adroitly explains how this unprecedented project—a collection of “two hundred thousand photographs and negatives” designed to capture “a visual encyclopedia of American life”—came to be, tracing the project’s formation and execution under the visionary leadership of photographer and government official Roy Stryker. Though the photographs, organized geographically, speak for themselves, Sandler’s choice of framing materials—quotes from the artists and photography critics—affirm the images’ importance as historical documents over what makes the images “good.” It’s a useful resource, collecting images that continue to define certain national visions and mythologies (small towns as “America’s Heartland”; farmers as the country’s “backbone”). Includes capsule biographies of the photographers and Stryker. Ages 10–14. (Oct.)