Mike Macartney's Blog - Posts Tagged "fsa"
Foundation, Empire, Second Foundation
With apologies to Isaac Asimov.
Back in the last century, about half way through, and just before the great war that laid the foundation of the American Empire, there were bad times. All over. Everyone everywhere was lost and in search of security and order - and empire. In the middle of that a little government agency, called the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was created. It was part of the government response to the Great Depression and tried to catch the falling collapse of agriculture, America’s biggest economy at the time. One of the things it did was to send out a pack of unemployed artists, in this case photographers, to look at America. Magic happened. Some of the best and most powerful images ever taken of America and its people blinked to existence. They are a national treasure and kept in the Smithsonian.
You have seen many of the black and white photos from this effort, by now famous photographers like Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, and Dorthea Lang. Recently the Denver Post Photo Blogs published some of the color capture of this time and place. Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943. http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/... Have a look.
Are these the people who made the greatest accidental empire the world has ever seen? Shsss, don’t tell anybody - all empires are accidental. “Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations” “Empire to empire in . . .” Look at the faces, the land, the technology. It is gone and distant and strange today. The context these people lived in and the thoughts they had and the way they explained life and their place in it, are only left in these colorful shadows of the once was.
The scribes and thought shapers and those who want to take credit will tell you that: “America is not imperial.” “America is not an empire.” “America is different and special in history.” Yes, they are absolutely correct. You only have to look at these photographs and others like them to know that. People driving horses and wagons, dripping oil on steam engine wheels, and sitting in the dirt eating white bread off paper plates are not imperial storm troopers. They were not the foundations of empire. What a stupid idea. Nobody will buy THAT book. Except that they did, and a million books have been written, read, written again, and then again.
There are many times many answers and opinions and myths about how America got from there, in these photographs, to here in 2012. Stories about the strange and magnificent “founding fathers” who were not really human at all, but angles sent to light our way and give use “The Constitution” to guide us in our struggle against the darkness. Sound like some of the things you have heard on CSPAN or at a Sarah speech? Then there are the stories about our virtue and morality and hard work and innovation and freedoms and capitalism handed down generation to generation to carry on the great experiment in Democracy. Not to worry, no more examples! The difficulty is squaring all the opinions with the photographs. Doesn’t work with that “Greatest Generation” pap either. Look at the pictures again.
The people and the world and the beliefs of the people in these photographs are gone forever. So it the world of 1776 and the world of 1968 and the world of 1997. These photographs are so powerful and regarded as a national treasure because they show a painfully clear snapshot of people and meaning from the middle of “The American Century.” When people drove horses to town and had outhouses. Just 70 years ago. You can see it and imagine it and go back to it.
It might be time to send unknown artists out again to see what America and Americans look like now. Really look like. Are they people who will try build the road to empire or the meek followers of the road to yesterday’s history. Same road, same amount of work. Has to be paved by every generation new. Only they own it. Put down the struggle and it changes in the blink of a thought, and is undone like it never was.
It is all about what you believe together, and how hard you work - and how the dice fall. Without the dice the other two do not get you there. Catch 22.
Back in the last century, about half way through, and just before the great war that laid the foundation of the American Empire, there were bad times. All over. Everyone everywhere was lost and in search of security and order - and empire. In the middle of that a little government agency, called the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was created. It was part of the government response to the Great Depression and tried to catch the falling collapse of agriculture, America’s biggest economy at the time. One of the things it did was to send out a pack of unemployed artists, in this case photographers, to look at America. Magic happened. Some of the best and most powerful images ever taken of America and its people blinked to existence. They are a national treasure and kept in the Smithsonian.
You have seen many of the black and white photos from this effort, by now famous photographers like Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, and Dorthea Lang. Recently the Denver Post Photo Blogs published some of the color capture of this time and place. Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943. http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/... Have a look.
Are these the people who made the greatest accidental empire the world has ever seen? Shsss, don’t tell anybody - all empires are accidental. “Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations” “Empire to empire in . . .” Look at the faces, the land, the technology. It is gone and distant and strange today. The context these people lived in and the thoughts they had and the way they explained life and their place in it, are only left in these colorful shadows of the once was.
The scribes and thought shapers and those who want to take credit will tell you that: “America is not imperial.” “America is not an empire.” “America is different and special in history.” Yes, they are absolutely correct. You only have to look at these photographs and others like them to know that. People driving horses and wagons, dripping oil on steam engine wheels, and sitting in the dirt eating white bread off paper plates are not imperial storm troopers. They were not the foundations of empire. What a stupid idea. Nobody will buy THAT book. Except that they did, and a million books have been written, read, written again, and then again.
There are many times many answers and opinions and myths about how America got from there, in these photographs, to here in 2012. Stories about the strange and magnificent “founding fathers” who were not really human at all, but angles sent to light our way and give use “The Constitution” to guide us in our struggle against the darkness. Sound like some of the things you have heard on CSPAN or at a Sarah speech? Then there are the stories about our virtue and morality and hard work and innovation and freedoms and capitalism handed down generation to generation to carry on the great experiment in Democracy. Not to worry, no more examples! The difficulty is squaring all the opinions with the photographs. Doesn’t work with that “Greatest Generation” pap either. Look at the pictures again.
The people and the world and the beliefs of the people in these photographs are gone forever. So it the world of 1776 and the world of 1968 and the world of 1997. These photographs are so powerful and regarded as a national treasure because they show a painfully clear snapshot of people and meaning from the middle of “The American Century.” When people drove horses to town and had outhouses. Just 70 years ago. You can see it and imagine it and go back to it.
It might be time to send unknown artists out again to see what America and Americans look like now. Really look like. Are they people who will try build the road to empire or the meek followers of the road to yesterday’s history. Same road, same amount of work. Has to be paved by every generation new. Only they own it. Put down the struggle and it changes in the blink of a thought, and is undone like it never was.
It is all about what you believe together, and how hard you work - and how the dice fall. Without the dice the other two do not get you there. Catch 22.
