No Caption Needed

The University of Chicago Press announces a fascinating new release, Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites' No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy. The press has posted an excerpt in which the authors discuss perhaps the most iconic photograph that American journalism has ever produced, Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother". The excerpt rather compellingly describes the story behind the creation of the photo and, even more interestingly, the mythos which arose around it and the subject's later reaction to being immortalized.

Longtime readers of this blog are likely already aware that I am an ardent devotee of the Farm Security Administration photographic project and collection from the 1930s and 1940s, which included works by Lange, Walker Evans, Jack Delano and many others and which I believe, in seeking to bring attention to the plight of everyday people during the Depression and its aftermath, is one of the finest examples of the ambition, humanity and compassion of the New Deal. Whether or not the photographs' subjects were at all aided by having their lives so documented, at least the enduring appeal of the photographs will ensure that these people will never be completely forgotten.

Although the scope of Hariman and Lucaites' book goes far beyond just the FSA collection, it looks like a very invigorating read. I'm definitely adding it to my list.