John Vachon arrived in Chicago during the summers of 1940 and 1941. He worked for the Farm Security Administration under the direction of Roy Stryker. Before becoming a professional photographer, Vachon worked as a messenger and a file clerk in Washington, D.C. His original job was to copy captions onto the backs of photographs. Eventually, he began to study the images he was filing and decided to pick up a camera himself. In Chicago, he used his skills to document the lives of ordinary citizens in the central city. He focused on the daily routines of people living through the final months of peace before the country entered the war.
The city in 1941 was a place of extreme visual contrasts. Vachon spent much of his time in the “Loop,” which served as the heart of the business and shopping district. He photographed wealthy residents in expensive coats walking past the grand windows of department stores. Just a few blocks away, his camera captured the harsh reality of poverty in the crowded tenement districts. Men in worn, oversized suits stood on street corners or gathered near the shipping docks looking for manual labor. The air stayed thick with the soot and smoke produced by the nearby steel mills. This mixture of high-end elegance and desperate struggle defined the city’s identity during this era.
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As the nation prepared for conflict, the physical appearance of Chicago began to change. Large recruitment posters for the Army and Navy appeared on the sides of brick buildings and in subway stations. Young men in fresh military uniforms became a constant presence at Union Station and the local bus terminals. Factories that previously manufactured consumer goods shifted their operations toward producing military equipment. Vachon recorded these shifts by photographing the massive crowds of workers during the morning shift changes. These laborers provided the industrial strength needed to support the upcoming war effort.
Vachon excelled at capturing the precise details of human expression through street portraits. He stood on busy sidewalks and waited for the right moment to document the people passing by. He photographed the tired faces of office clerks and the determined looks of newsboys shouting the daily headlines. Many of his subjects did not realize they were being recorded, which allowed Vachon to capture honest moments. He also documented the lives of Black residents on the South Side, who lived in segregated neighborhoods while working in the city’s essential industries. Every photograph provided a clear look at the diverse individuals who kept the city running.
