The American West in the thirties

About this book

From 1935 to 1940, Arthur Rothstein roamed the country taking pictures on assignment for the Farm Security Administration. This evocative gallery of prints is distilled from that experience--122 striking images of people and places west of the Mississippi. Times were hard. Depression ravaged the economy as drought and dust storms ravaged the land. That devastation is captured in stark images of withered cornfields and drought-stricken cattle; in the faces of work-weary farmwives and sharecroppers' children ... Throughout, there are perceptive portraits of the people of the West--farmers, ranchers, sharecroppers, cowboys, miners, sheepherders--retaining their dignity and optimism in the midst of trying times. One of America's premier documentary photographers, Rothstein excelled at using the camera to express ideas and emotions. Design and composition are masterfully employed to help in this communication. The results are not only superb documentary statements but often works of art"--Back cover.