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Farm Security Administration
In the fall of 1936, Russell 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 Depression. Lee 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, 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.
Russell Lee’s FSA colleagues included Ben Shahn, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Jack Delano and Walker Evans. Like most of his colleagues, Lee shot both 35mm and medium format film for the FSA. His FSA negatives are currently at the Library of Congress.
Shortly after the US involvement in World War II, the unit at the FSA moved to the Office of War Information.
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