“My passion for photography stems from a very simple thing…man’s ability to communicate with his fellow men.”
- Roy E. Stryker
In an effort to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt instituted the New Deal – multiple programs designed to provide work and support for the unemployed. One of those programs, the Historical Division of the Farm Security Administration, was headed by a man named Roy E. Stryker from 1935-1943. Though only a low-level bureaucrat, his vision brought about the photographic documentation of the Great Depression – the work of Dorothea Lange, Arthur Robinson, Gordon Parks, and so many others.
Content
This film begins with a nice montage of several images combined with a great piano score. There is then a slow zoom out from a photomontage composed of Roy E. Stryker’s picture, along with the title of the film. It was a nice touch to give the illusion of a photomontage, given how instrumental Stryker was in their creation. It’s a very different way to start off a film and immediately helps to set the tone.
There were three experts interviewed: Beverly Brannon, curator of photography at the Library of Congress; Alan Fern, retired director of the National Portrait Gallery; and Peter Kurznick, professor of history at American University. All three were very well-spoken and clearly knowledgeable about this subject. Three interviews was also perfect for a documentary of this size, as each was given a good portion of time to talk.
The film was relatively short for a documentary – I would’ve almost liked to see an extended version that went into a little more detail about how Stryker got involved in the New Deal and some more specifics about him and his life. It might also have been a good idea to include a brief synopsis on the Great Depression and its cause as well, just to catch up those of us who haven’t set foot in a history class for quite a while. However, since the main purpose of the documentaries made by this particular company – Films for the Humanities and Sciences – is that of education, it’s most likely it will be shown to a class of students already studying the Great Depression, and probably won’t be in need of such an introduction.
Visual Look
The visuals in this film were really great; a nice mix of both stills and film, along with interview segments. Of course the focus is – and should be – on the photographs themselves; not only are they the focus of the documentary, they are also extremely powerful images.
At the end of the movie, while discussing the transition between Depression-era photographs and the department’s move toward propaganda-style images of World War II, there were a number of colored images. They did look a little out of place, particularly since an audience is used to looking at World War II in black and white. On the one hand, this choice fits with the subject being discussed – a transition between two very different types of photography – so in this respect it could be a good choice. But while color film was certainly in use at the time, the use of those photographs took a bit away from the uniform look of the film, since all the images in the documentary up to that point were in black and white.
Use of Audio
I really loved the score in this movie. The music is very fluid, both piano and guitar pieces, which are full of deep feeling with slightly more than a hint of sadness and tragedy. Some strains reminded me a bit of the beautiful Civil War-era piece, prominently featured in the famous Ken Burns documentary, “Ashokan Farewell.” Even for a short documentary, it would be wonderful if these particular songs were made available on some sort of soundtrack.
