WOODSTOCK / PRE-FSA
After several years of frustration, painting portraits and landscapes in Woodstock, Lee purchased his first camera, a 35mm Contax, in 1935 to aid him in his painting and draftsmanship. He photographed his surroundings in Woodstock, venturing out to auctions to document the realities of the Depression as people were forced to sell their household goods. He also traveled to New York City in the winter of 1935-1936 and photographed urban scenes, as well as the effects of the Depression there: unemployment, hunger and despair. In the spring of 1936 he traveled to Pennsylvania and photographed the bootleg coal mines. His training as a chemical engineer enabled him to explore, confidently and quickly, photography’s technical aspects; he was soon mixing his own developing chemicals, which allowed him to "push" his film beyond its normal ratings. It was also at this time that he began experimenting with flash photography techniques. He acquired an agent and soon began selling his photographs to magazines.

FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
In the fall of 1936, Lee joined the photographic staff of the Resettlement Administration (RA), which was renamed the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1937. Both the RA and the FSA were New Deal programs created to assist poor and destitute farmers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. He worked directly under the creative supervision of Roy Stryker, the head of the Historical Section and the director of photographic projects.
The Historical Section’s purpose and function was to publicize and gain national support for the FSA, through the dissemination of photographs illustrating the plight of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and migrant workers. Stryker’s documentary team created 77,000 still photographs from 1935 until 1942; many of these were published in a variety of newspapers, books and magazines. His graphic designers and editors produced posters and exhibitions of these photographs that toured cities around the United States, educating mostly urban Americans about the country’s rural problems.
During his tenure with the FSA, Russell Lee crisscrossed the United States, documenting rural and urban communities. He specialized in photographic series; his two most famous series from this time are his photographs of San Augustine, Texas in 1939, and Pie Town, New Mexico in 1940. Both series are represented in The Russell Lee Collection at the Wittliff Gallery.
His colleagues at the FSA included Ben Shahn, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Jack Delano and Walker Evans. Like most of his colleagues, Russell shot both 35mm and medium format film for the FSA; his FSA negatives are currently at the Library of Congress.
It was also during this time working for the FSA that the marriage between Russell and Doris Lee ended; they divorced in 1939. On assignment in New Orleans that same year, he met Jean Smith, a Dallas journalist. The two began working together and eventually married. Jean Lee quickly became a key factor in the success of Russell Lee’s photographs, as she interviewed the people being photographed, kept fastidious notes and subsequently wrote all of the captions. Her abilities to engage his subjects in relaxing yet informative conversation allowed him to concentrate on making the photographs.
Shortly after the US involvement in World War II, the unit at the FSA moved to the Office of War Information (OWI).