At the height of the Great Depression, the US government created the Resettlement Administration to aid drought-stricken and impoverished farmers. In 1937, the RA was restructured and renamed the Farm Security Administration.
The FSA’s most notable effort was its small team of documentary photographers that toured the country, documenting the living conditions of Americans. A legendary group of documentarians and photographers, including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, Lewis Hine, and Russell Lee, took part in the project, directed by Roy Stryker.
John Felix Vachon, a 21-year-old Minnesotan attending the Catholic University of America, got a job with the FSA as an assistant messenger in 1936. He had no previous interest in photography, but his constant exposure to the work of the FSA photographers inspired him to give it a try. As a kid, he wandered around Washington, DC, with a Leica camera, and was soon trained, provided equipment, and encouraged by Stryker, Evans, and others in the FSA. He began shooting solo assignments by 1938.
The still-green photographer here captures images of city life in Chicago in his 1941 photographs, which are sometimes distant and unobtrusive, but also sharply observant and quietly funny.
#1 The Union Stockyards in Chicago, Illinois, July 1941
#2 A man as he climbs the steps of the Chicago, July 1941
#3 Two women buying tickets at a newly air conditioned movie theater on a hot summer day, Chicago, Illinois, July 1940.
#4 A young man in a hat window shopping at a clothing store, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941.
#5 Passengers wait at the nearly deserted railway terminal at Union Station, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941.
#6 A man holds a sign which reads: ‘If Negro men can carry guns for Uncle Sam, surely they can drive milk wagons for Bowman Dairy,’, Chicago, Illinois.
#7 Chicago Great Western freight cars beside a giant grain elevator.
#8 Picket line in front of Mid-City Realty Company. South Chicago, Illinois, 1941.
#9 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 1941
#10 Public Bathing Beach, Lake Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941
#11 Crowd and Movie Theater Marquee at Night, Chicago, July 1941
#12 Street Scene under Elevated Railway, Chicago, July 1941
#13 People Waiting on Platform for Elevated Train, Merchandise Mart Station, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941
#14 Burlesque Theater, South State Street, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941
#15 Billboard, Purchase Coal Now, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941
#16 5 Oclock Crowd, LaSalle Street Station, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941
#17 Children Cooling off in Water from Fire Hydrant, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941
#18 Group of Boys at Public Bathing Beach, Lake Michigan, Chicago, July 1941
#19 Alley and Elevated Train Tracks, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941
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Clean and no graffiti… Now so bad..
