ESTHER BUBLEY * DULUTH MINNESOTA ORE * VINTAGE c. 1940s STANDARD OIL of NJ photo

Description: A GREAT CLASSIC VINTAGE MUSEUM QUALITY GELATIN SILVER PRESS PHOTOGRAPH BY ESTHER BUBLEY OF THE DULUTH, MISSABE AND IRON RANGE ORE DOCKS IN DULUTH, MINNESOTA. STANDARD OIL OF NEW JERSEY. PHOTOGRAPHED AND PRINTED CIRCA 1940s SINGLE-WEIGHT GELATIN SILVER PHOTOGRAPH. PROVENANCE: AMERICAN HERITAGE PICTURE COLLECTION. TOTAL MEASUREMENTS ARE APPROXIMATELY 4" BY 4 7/8". EXCELLENT OR BETTER CONDITION, A FEW FAINT SURFACE IRREGULARITIES AND/OR CRACKS - PLEASE REVIEW SCANS! EXCEPTIONAL MIDWESTERN AMERICANA FOSSIL FUELS GASOLINE OIL MACHINERY INDUSTRIAL INDUSTRY COMPANY SUBJECT MATTER! PLEASE SEE MY ADDITIONAL LISTINGS FOR MORE EXCEPTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS. PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY! ALL NON-USA RESIDENTS: SHIPPING IS $18.00 BY STANDARD INTERNATIONAL MAIL FOR FLAT ENVELOPES ONLY. PACKAGE POSTAL FEES ARE DETERMINED BY THE PACKAGE'S SIZE AND WEIGHT. PLEASE KNOW A CUSTOMS DECLARATION IS REQUIRED ON ALL INTERNATIONAL PACKAGES. 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With the onset of World War II, the photographic unit was taken over by the Office of War Information, and its mission turned to reflecting more positive images of the country in order to boost morale on the home front. In 1943, under mounting bureaucratic criticism of the FSA as a waster of government funds, Congress ruled that the rural assistance programs be reorganized and that the FSA be disbanded. The New Deal experiment to aid rural farmers had come to an abrupt end. Stryker's historical section was transformed into a photographic agency for the OWI, and his team of photographers began to disband. Although the 130,000 FSA photographs were being filed and cataloged for future use, there was a real threat that enemies of the organization wanted them destroyed. In order to facilitate a safe and orderly transfer of the collection to the Library of Congress, Stryker sought approval for such a move from the office of President Roosevelt himself. During this period of instability, Stryker was approached by Standard Oil of New Jersey to organize a documentation project for the purpose of improving the company's public image. After confirming that the FSA photographs were safe within the walls of the Library of Congress, Stryker resigned and took several of his remaining FSA photographers along to his next project.Stryker's work at Standard Oil of New Jersey lasted from 1943 to 1950 and was the "largest photographic documentation project ever undertaken in America by anyone other than the federal government." Although he initially had some misgivings about working for a large corporation with such a tarnished reputation, and despite photographer Harold Corsini's description of him as a Depression-era "apostle of the downtrodden," Stryker finally accepted the offer. The SO project required the documentation of the company's operations in the field and other topics that related somehow to the oil industry. By the time the project was completed, some 67,000 photographs had been produced.In selecting photographers for this project, Stryker sought those who possessed an "insatiable curiosity, the kind that can get to the core of an assignment, the kind that can comprehend what a truck driver, or a farmer, or a driller, or a housewife thinks and feels and translate those thoughts and feelings into pictures that can be similarly comprehended by anyone." Photographers on the SO project included, among others: Berenice Abbott, Gordon Parks and Todd Webb; as well as Esther Bubley, Harold Corsini, Russell Lee, Arnold Eagle, Elliott Erwitt and Sol Libsohn, who would later follow Stryker to his next project in Pittsburgh. After suggesting topics he wanted documented, Stryker gave his photographers the freedom to pursue their individual approaches to their subjects. As with all his projects though, Stryker was adamant that his staff understand their subjects and their context before going out on an assignment.Charles Rotkin, who worked on the SO project as an aerial photographer, described Stryker as being "an archivist. He didn't give a damn about a picture at the time it was made. He was interested in what it would mean twenty years later... He was saving pictures for a record of the past." The photographs produced by the SO project were published in newspapers and magazines across the country. They were used to illustrate textbooks and were exhibited in museums and galleries as well. As opposed to the emotionally-charged FSA photographs that depicted the ravaging effects of the Depression, the SO images recorded the elements of society that prospered from oil production. Corporate budget-trimming in the late 1940s threatened continuation of the SO project. The collection would eventually be transferred to the Photographic Archives at the University of Louisville. Stryker thus was free to accept an offer to direct the Pittsburgh Photographic Library.In order to document the renaissance of the "Smoky City" into a modern urban industrial center, the city's corporate and educational leaders sought out Stryker's help in directing such a project. In a letter addressed to an administrator at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum in late 1949, Roy Stryker detailed his ideas for implementing a photographic library: "All materials from all sources would be integrated into an active Photographic Library -- the heart of the project... It is a place where material is coordinated, where it is so classified and arranged as to be easily available to those who wish to use it... Such a library has certain dynamism -- it calls for material and is a constant inspiration to photographers and users of pictures." Commenced in July 1950 at the University of Pittsburgh, the PPL would become the nerve center for what has been described as "the most complete photographic documentation ever achieved by any American community." Although Stryker resigned from the project in 1952, the PPL continued in operation for several more years before being dissolved. Stryker was involved in negotiating the transfer of the roughly 18,000 photographs to a proper repository. In 1960, the collection was transferred to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.After leaving the PPL, Stryker directed a documentation project at Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation. Thereafter, he accepted consulting jobs on occasion and conducted seminars on photo-journalism at the University of Missouri. Stryker eventually returned to the west in the 1960s. He died in Grand Junction, Colorado on September 27, 1975. Not only did Roy Stryker orchestrate an unmatched documentation of a crucial period in American history, but he also helped transform how we look at photographs. Stryker's photographers have taught us "that a picture could be beautiful and still possess a social conscience." Most of the men and women who worked for Roy Stryker continued their photographic careers and some, notably Berenice Abbott, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, would achieve great fame. Many of them would carry his words of advise with them. As photographer Carl Mydans relates, "In all the years since I left him, when making pictures I often hear him say, 'Now what are you doing that for? Why are you making that picture?'." Roy Stryker's teaching and his passion for photo-journalism continue to make a profound impact among documentary photographers today.

Price: 31 USD

Location: New England

End Time: 2024-04-13T20:40:00.000Z

Shipping Cost: 9 USD