Thursday, May 3, 2012

Ben Shahn - Kids

Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born photographer (also a painter) who worked for the FSA during the Great Depression. Here are some of his pictures of children.

 Children of African-American sharecroppers, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1935

 Children of Sam Nichols, Arkansas tenant farmer, 1935

 Children of destitute Ozark mountaineer, Arkansas, 1935

 Children of homesteaders, the Resettlement Administration's Shenandoah Homesteads, 1941

 Children of homesteaders, the Resettlement Administration's Shenandoah Homesteads, 1941

 Dwellers in Circleville's "Hooverville," central Ohio, 1938

School youngsters, Red House, West Virginia, 1935

Young boys salvaging coal from the slag heaps, Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, 1937

1 comment:

  1. The young slag picker on the far right behind the bigger boy in the bottom photo was my fathers best friend two life times ago. He is the subject of a much more famous photo taken the same day. It`s the one with the boy in the Andy Capp hat on the left. Image search Ben Shahn Nanty Glo and it will pop up. Anyway the world has always thought that they were exploited when the truth is that my 12 year old father gave them "the territory" in the same fashion that an older boy turns over his paper route to a neighbor. To see the boy seven years later saying good bye to my Dad as he begins his Atlantic fleet convoy duties, Image search Lou Mc Hugh. Find the picture of the sailor saying good bye to the Nanty Glo football team. The boy on the right is standing to my fathers right. He was called "The Swede" my dad told me. The other boy with hat in the photo not seen here will be front row second from right. I believe that this photo of them posing with my father and the rest of the gang is the only other one of them together known to exist. You may also want to see the Lou Mc Hugh picture of the sailor posing next to the naval cannon. Read what`s on the barrell. Nanty Glo... Enjoy!!

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