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residents do not merely inhabit substandard housing but are engaged in a variety of domestic activities. The dwellings at Gee's Bend must have been as uncomfortable as the frame shacks thrown up for farm workers everywhere, but
Rothstein's photographs emphasize the log cabins' picturesque qualities. This affirming image of life in Gee's Bend is reinforced by Rothstein's deliberate, balanced compositions which lend dignity to the people being pictured.
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of August 22, 1937. It is illustrated by eleven of
Rothstein's pictures, with a text that draws heavily upon a Resettlement Administration report dated in May. The story extols the agency's regional director as intelligent and sympathetic and describes the Gee's Bend project in glowing terms.
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Unlike the subjects of many
Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration photographs, the people of Gee's Bend are not portrayed as victims. The photographs do not show the back-breaking work of cultivation and harvest, but only offer a glimpse of spring plowing. At home, the
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The residents of Gee's Bend symbolized two different things to the
Resettlement Administration. On the one hand, reports about the community prepared by the agency describe the residents as isolated and primitive, people whose speech, habits, and material culture reflected an
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were assembling. The book was never published, but before the year was out, Tugwell, who had left
Columbia to be part of FDR's New Deal brain trust, hired Stryker. Stryker hired Rothstein to set up the darkroom for Stryker's Photo Unit of the Historical Section of the
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and then the US Army as a photographer in the Signal Corps. His military assignment took him to the China-Burma-India theatre and he remained in China following his discharge from the military in 1945, working as chief photographer for the
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391:. The two perceptions may be seen as related: if these tenants — despite their primitive culture— could benefit from training and financial assistance, their success would demonstrate the efficacy of the programs.
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Arthur
Rothstein became the first photographer sent out by Roy Stryker, the head of the Photo Unit. During the next five years he shot photographs of rural America. He and other FSA photographers, including
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The photographs made during
Rothstein's five-year stint with the Photo Unit form a catalog of the agency's initiatives. One of his first assignments was to document the lives of some
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Rothstein's parents were
Isadore Rothstein and Nettie Rothstein (née Perlstein). In 1947, he married Grace Goodman, and the couple went on to have four children: Robert Rothstein (
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The immediate incentive for his
February 1937 assignment came from the interest generated by congressional consideration of farm tenant legislation sponsored in the Senate by
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Rothstein's photographs are in permanent collections throughout the world and have appeared in numerous exhibitions. A selection of these one-man shows include shows at the
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will grab." Stryker planned to visit
Alabama and asked Rothstein to wait for him, but he was never able to make the trip, and Rothstein went to Gee's Bend alone.
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In 1935, as a college senior, Rothstein prepared a set of copy photographs for a picture source book on American agriculture that Stryker and another professor,
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origin and an older way of life. On the other hand, the agency's agenda for rehabilitation implied a view of the residents as the victims of
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The former home of the Pettways. Gee's Bend, Alabama. April 1937. Photographed by Arthur Rothstein.
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and about to be relocated by the Resettlement Administration, and subsequent trips took him to the
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that states a Knowledge editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic.
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in New York City, and he took great pride in mentoring young photographers including
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A recipient of more than 35 awards in photojournalism and a former juror for the
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gave the agency its new lease on life as the Farm Security Administration.
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He was the author of numerous magazine articles and a staff columnist for
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Oklahoma's True Grit Dust Bowl Family, 77 Years Later; 405 Magazine.
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Arthur Rothstein photograph collection, 1848-2000, (bulk 1932-1985)
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until 1971 when the magazine ceased publication. Rothstein joined
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On February 18, 1937, Stryker wrote Rothstein that the journalist
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Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University
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perceived the project as retaining agrarian—and African—values.
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magazine story about Gee's Bend, but a long article ran in the
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with a strong interest in agriculture. Enacted in July, the
847:, Resettlement Administration, Lot 1616 Library of Congress
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International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House
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personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay
285:, were employed to publicize the living conditions of the
767:"Arthur Rothstein (American, 1915 - 1985) (Getty Museum)"
591:, Rothstein was also a founder and former officer of the
181:, and he grew up in the Bronx. He was a 1935 graduate of
595:(ASMP). Arthur Rothstein died on November 11, 1985, in
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United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
611:), Ann Segan, Eve Roth Lindsay and Daniel Rothstein.
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magazine in 1972 and remained there until his death.
297:(FSA) in 1937. Later, when the country geared up for
193:. Following his graduation from Columbia during the
161:(July 17, 1915 – November 11, 1985) was an American
462:In 1940, Rothstein became a staff photographer for
312:farmers who were being evicted to make way for the
228:: a farmer and his two sons during a dust storm in
867:Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives
555:Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
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433:. April 1937. Photographed by Arthur Rothstein.
559:S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
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293:. The Resettlement Administration became the
177:immigrants, Rothstein was born in Manhattan,
517:, Rothstein wrote and published nine books.
540:, as well as traveling exhibitions for the
488:as Director of Photography. He remained at
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812:Dust Bowl chronicler Arthur Rothstein dies
703:Arthur Rothstein: Photographer (1915–1985)
593:American Society of Magazine Photographers
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565:. Rothstein was also on the faculties of
359:had told him about a tenant community at
65:Learn how and when to remove this message
468:but left shortly thereafter to join the
220:Perhaps Rothstein's most famous photo, "
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425:Annie Pettway Bendolph carrying water.
387:and the farm-tenant system on a former
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553:He was a member of the faculty of the
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680:Early color photograph of a guide at
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1108:Artists from New Rochelle, New York
858:The Arthur Rothstein Legacy Project
398:There does not seem to have been a
222:Dust Bowl Cimarron County, Oklahoma
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1133:Columbia College (New York) alumni
684:. Taken 1943, digitally restored.
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557:and a Spencer Chair Professor at
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1123:Mercy College (New York) faculty
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771:The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles
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747:Arthur Rothstein Legacy Project
457:Woman on the Pettway Plantation
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801:Arthur Rothstein, ancestry.com
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345:Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act
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301:, the FSA became part of the
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484:In 1947, Rothstein rejoined
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211:Resettlement Administration
144:Photojournalist and teacher
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303:Office of War Information
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1128:Mercy University faculty
743:"About Arthur Rothstein"
718:"Columbia College Today"
682:Little Norway, Wisconsin
571:Parsons School of Design
314:Shenandoah National Park
16:American photojournalist
1034:12 Million Black Voices
818:, 11 November 1985, p45
630:Lee County, Mississippi
534:Corcoran Gallery of Art
526:Smithsonian Institution
405:New York Times Magazine
597:New Rochelle, New York
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45:by rewriting it in an
828:About Eve, Savvystyle
741:arthurrothstein.org.
666:Pennsylvania Turnpike
411:John Temple Graves II
366:The American Magazine
224:" and an icon of the
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668:by Rothstein in 1942
583:Chester Higgins, Jr.
966:Marion Post Wolcott
628:Family in a wagon,
563:Syracuse University
361:Gee's Bend, Alabama
333:John H. Bankhead II
251:Marion Post Wolcott
183:Columbia University
134:Columbia University
833:2014-10-14 at the
513:magazines and the
510:Modern Photography
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47:encyclopedic style
34:is written like a
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984:John Collier
942:Walker Evans
930:Theodor Jung
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255:Walker Evans
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163:photographer
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123:(1985-11-11)
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55:October 2022
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1088:1985 deaths
1083:1915 births
1057:Roy Stryker
978:Jack Delano
974:(1936/1938)
972:John Vachon
960:Russell Lee
954:Carl Mydans
324:ranches in
275:Carl Mydans
271:John Vachon
267:Jack Delano
259:Russell Lee
199:Roy Stryker
173:The son of
152:Photography
1077:Categories
776:2020-08-11
752:2020-08-11
727:2020-08-11
690:References
609:Rob Stoner
569:, and the
427:Gee's Bend
389:plantation
351:Gee's Bend
105:1915-07-17
936:Ben Shahn
646:Iowa City
644:Newsboy,
530:Photokina
504:US Camera
409:Reporter
318:Dust Bowl
283:Ben Shahn
226:Dust Bowl
831:Archived
544:and for
337:Democrat
310:Virginia
234:Oklahoma
1045:Related
615:Gallery
431:Alabama
385:slavery
381:African
341:Alabama
326:Montana
320:and to
305:(OWI).
41:Please
1037:(1941)
1029:(1936)
1010:(1942)
1004:(1942)
998:(1941)
992:(1941)
986:(1941)
980:(1940)
968:(1936)
962:(1936)
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950:(1935)
944:(1935)
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932:(1935)
926:(1935)
581:, and
524:; the
495:Parade
322:cattle
236:, 1936
213:(RA).
175:Jewish
136:(B.A.)
1018:Works
339:from
287:rural
507:and
490:Look
486:Look
400:Life
372:Life
335:, a
281:and
118:Died
99:Born
907:FSA
664:on
470:OWI
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