Edwin Rosskam documented life in Provincetown, Massachusetts, from 1937 to 1940, a seaside resort at the tip of the Cape. Edwin arrived in the US in 1919 from Munich, Germany, where he was born to American parents. He studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before becoming interested in photography and joining the Farm Security Administration.
The summer wasn’t all beaches and sun. He worked for Life and Look magazines in Puerto Rico in the late 1930s. As a photographer for the Standard Oil Company in the early 1940s, he captured images of refineries and river scenes. In 1941, he collaborated with novelist Richard Wright on 12 million Black Voices, a folk history of Blacks in America. In 1948, he published Towboat River with his wife, Louise, a book of pictures and text detailing life on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. In later years, he worked for the Government of Puerto Rico in a rural education program.
I get nostalgic sitting on a bar stool thinking of the thousands that have been in the same spot over the centuries living their own experience. It can be humbling being in some of these buildings.
I look at these pictures and the people, the buildings, the beaches, and the vibe, and not much has changed. People loving a beautiful town. Still the best place to be in the world!