The Farm Security Administration's 'Killed Negatives': Examining the Suppressed Photographs of the Great Depression
By
nomagicbullet
Crackling crust, pillowy middle. The kind of bagel that earns a second cup of coffee.
Summary
The article examines the history of the Farm Security Administration's photography program during the Great Depression, focusing on the practice of 'killing' photographs by hole-punching negatives. Of the 270,000 images commissioned to document rural America, more than a third were intentionally marked for destruction or suppression. The piece explores why certain images were preserved while others were eliminated, examining the political, aesthetic, and ideological factors that shaped this photographic archive and created an 'unknowable void' in the historical record.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledOf the 270,000 photographs commissioned by the US Farm Security Administration to document the Great Depression, more than a third were 'killed'.
One of the so-called 'killed negatives' that were hole punched by FSA staff to indicate that they should not be printed.
Begun as part of the alphabet soup of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) had been tasked with resettling struggling farmers onto more fertile ground.
Erica X Eisen examines the history behind this hole-punched archive and the unknowable void at its center.
Untitled photograph by Carl Mydans, 1935, possibly depicting a farm in Prince George's County, Maryland.
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