Author: Marion Post. Wolcott
Publisher: Friends of Photography Bookstore,
Genre: Arts & Photography
Release: My Rating: 0
Summary: MARION POST WOLCOTT FSA PHOTOGRAPHS, with an introduction by Sally Stein, is a 48-page medium format book printed on glossy paper. The book is 9 x 11 inches. The reproductions are of various sizes, for example, 7 x 8 inches, 6 x 8 inches, or 5.5 x 7.25 inches. There are 35 black and white photographs. The photos are of excellent contrast, and can be enjoyed even when viewed under dim lighting.
WRITING. In the introduction, we read that Wolcott's photographs were unique among FSA photographers because they illustrated discrepancies in social and racial classes.
We read about, "the photograph she made looking upon an outdoor Florida resort scene . . . as a part of a series of photographs that contrasted the complacency of the affluent with the abject poverty she documented in nearby migrant labor camps." We read about, "prohibition against direct contract between classes is the pointed subject of another photograph by Post Wolcott, "Business managers paying off cotton pickers (1939)" . . . the photographer's chosen vantage point behind the managers allows us to see only one cotton picker, and that one only barely . . . all evidence indicates that this plantation was run on strict business principles, there is nothing personable about the rural relations depicted. The picker was not even handed her pay. Instead, it was set down a few inches away from the narrow window." (pages 4-5) It is therefore the case, in my opinion, that Sally Stein's writing is intelligent, insightful, and inspiring.
PHOTOGRAPHS. There are nine photos of poor white people, four photos of city street scenes with people, three pictures of black cotton pickers, five pictures or rich white people, and ten group poses (black, white, rich, poor), and two landscapes. The cover of the book bears the photo, "Migrant family from Missouri, Belle Glade, Florida, 1939," which shows a poor white family posing under palm trees. The photo is a work of art, because of the grouping. Three toddlers form a tight cluster on the left. Three young women are in a row, over to the right half of the photo. In the foreground, a young man stoops over, digging in the ground with a stick.
Plate 8, entitled, "Business managers paying off cotton picker, Marcella Plantation, Mileston, Mississippi, 1939," shows two well-dressed business managers viewed at an angle from behind them, a mechanical calculating machine, where one of the men is paying money to cotton pickers. A screened window separates the managers from the pickers. The negro hand of a picker reaches through a small aperture in the screen, resembling the hand of a monkey reaching through the bars of a cage in a zoo, for food from visitors. Although the photo was taken in 1939, it is an accurate metaphorical representation of how management in most present-day corporations treat lower-level employees.
Plate 19, entitled, "Negro entering movie theater by outside entrance to upstairs colored section, Belzoni, Mississippi, 1939," shows an outdoor flight of stairs by the wall of a movie theater, with a negro walking up, and a sign reading, "COLORED ADM. 10 cents." Under the stairs is a door to a toilet reading, "WHITE MEN ONLY." At the very center of the photo is a step ladder with its shadow. The step ladder with shadow add a mysterious element to the photograph, that is, mysterious in the same way that the odd structures in the surrealist paintings by YVES TANGUY are mysterious.
Plate 25, called, "Woman lying in the sun, Miami Beach, Florida, 1939," shows an obese woman with pigeon-toed legs, lying face-down on a recliner. The legs are so extremely pigeon-toed that they could almost be characterized as a birth defect. Immediately to the right the fat lady's feet is a row of shadows from a row of pudgy architectural columns, and to the right of the shadows is the row of columns. The photo is a work of art, because the odd shape of the woman's two legs, situated side-by-side with respect to each other, correspond somewhat to the side-by-side nature of the oddly shaped architectural columns. In short, the woman's legs and the architectural columns both resemble piano legs.
CONCLUSION. In my opinion, this book could be considered to be indispensable to all people who consider themselves to own, or who are planning on owning, a library of photography books. You don't have to sympathize with any particular social cause, and you don't need a minute of training in art history, in order to appreciate the enduring quality of the artistic merit of the photographs in this book.
Publisher: Friends of Photography Bookstore,
Genre: Arts & Photography
Release: My Rating: 0
Summary: MARION POST WOLCOTT FSA PHOTOGRAPHS, with an introduction by Sally Stein, is a 48-page medium format book printed on glossy paper. The book is 9 x 11 inches. The reproductions are of various sizes, for example, 7 x 8 inches, 6 x 8 inches, or 5.5 x 7.25 inches. There are 35 black and white photographs. The photos are of excellent contrast, and can be enjoyed even when viewed under dim lighting.
WRITING. In the introduction, we read that Wolcott's photographs were unique among FSA photographers because they illustrated discrepancies in social and racial classes.
We read about, "the photograph she made looking upon an outdoor Florida resort scene . . . as a part of a series of photographs that contrasted the complacency of the affluent with the abject poverty she documented in nearby migrant labor camps." We read about, "prohibition against direct contract between classes is the pointed subject of another photograph by Post Wolcott, "Business managers paying off cotton pickers (1939)" . . . the photographer's chosen vantage point behind the managers allows us to see only one cotton picker, and that one only barely . . . all evidence indicates that this plantation was run on strict business principles, there is nothing personable about the rural relations depicted. The picker was not even handed her pay. Instead, it was set down a few inches away from the narrow window." (pages 4-5) It is therefore the case, in my opinion, that Sally Stein's writing is intelligent, insightful, and inspiring.
PHOTOGRAPHS. There are nine photos of poor white people, four photos of city street scenes with people, three pictures of black cotton pickers, five pictures or rich white people, and ten group poses (black, white, rich, poor), and two landscapes. The cover of the book bears the photo, "Migrant family from Missouri, Belle Glade, Florida, 1939," which shows a poor white family posing under palm trees. The photo is a work of art, because of the grouping. Three toddlers form a tight cluster on the left. Three young women are in a row, over to the right half of the photo. In the foreground, a young man stoops over, digging in the ground with a stick.
Plate 8, entitled, "Business managers paying off cotton picker, Marcella Plantation, Mileston, Mississippi, 1939," shows two well-dressed business managers viewed at an angle from behind them, a mechanical calculating machine, where one of the men is paying money to cotton pickers. A screened window separates the managers from the pickers. The negro hand of a picker reaches through a small aperture in the screen, resembling the hand of a monkey reaching through the bars of a cage in a zoo, for food from visitors. Although the photo was taken in 1939, it is an accurate metaphorical representation of how management in most present-day corporations treat lower-level employees.
Plate 19, entitled, "Negro entering movie theater by outside entrance to upstairs colored section, Belzoni, Mississippi, 1939," shows an outdoor flight of stairs by the wall of a movie theater, with a negro walking up, and a sign reading, "COLORED ADM. 10 cents." Under the stairs is a door to a toilet reading, "WHITE MEN ONLY." At the very center of the photo is a step ladder with its shadow. The step ladder with shadow add a mysterious element to the photograph, that is, mysterious in the same way that the odd structures in the surrealist paintings by YVES TANGUY are mysterious.
Plate 25, called, "Woman lying in the sun, Miami Beach, Florida, 1939," shows an obese woman with pigeon-toed legs, lying face-down on a recliner. The legs are so extremely pigeon-toed that they could almost be characterized as a birth defect. Immediately to the right the fat lady's feet is a row of shadows from a row of pudgy architectural columns, and to the right of the shadows is the row of columns. The photo is a work of art, because the odd shape of the woman's two legs, situated side-by-side with respect to each other, correspond somewhat to the side-by-side nature of the oddly shaped architectural columns. In short, the woman's legs and the architectural columns both resemble piano legs.
CONCLUSION. In my opinion, this book could be considered to be indispensable to all people who consider themselves to own, or who are planning on owning, a library of photography books. You don't have to sympathize with any particular social cause, and you don't need a minute of training in art history, in order to appreciate the enduring quality of the artistic merit of the photographs in this book.