.
Advertising, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940 
Shooting marbles, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Shooting marbles, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Boys playing marbles, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940 
Shooting marbles, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Boys in marble game, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Little girl, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Residential street, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Painted pillar, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Privy pump and pillar, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Residential street, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
A residential street, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Residential street, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Resident of Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940 
Gravedigger at work, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Digging a grave, graveyard on the outskirts of Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Graveyard and town of Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Planting a garden in the backyard, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Resident of small town plowing fields behind his house to plant corn, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, April 1940
Main Street, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940 
Edge of town, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Advertising, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Billboard, Woodbine, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, May 1940
Photos by John Vachon from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress
11 comments:
Tom,
Thanks for these, more photos from John Vachon -- moving through them I kept on thinking "all these people are gone," and then I got to the graveyard -- very moving indeed. . . .
12.15
blue of sky in grey whiteness of clouds
above ridge, motion of leaves on branch
in foreground, sound of wave in channel
form in a sense, “opposite”
that can be more that
thing, what it started from,
picture made from one
grey-white fog against invisible ridge,
shadowed green pine on tip of sandspit
Steve, yes,
keeping it going on --
what's plowed over
what's buried under
what it started from,
picture made from one,
every one
gone
(though of course those kids could be still kicking now at eighty, and reading this... as could we be...)
(very familiar scenes for me by the way, my dad was for a while in the late 1940s a traveling salesman of cardboard boxes, Iowa a major part of his territory, I went along on a few of his trips... and saw a lot... of tall corn)
Puree Boulders were kings.
I loved to play marbles!! We called them "bolitas". But I could only do it when we go to the "quinta" my mother's family had near the city of La Plata
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=389161&l=acb7639a68&id=100000225052163
wonderful pics, Tom
soothing... beautiful...
The importance of place and time seems to be lost on some:
"Advocates for the homeless have protested the recent decision of the administration of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to experiment on the city’s poor by conducting what is essentially a randomized trial on the effect of denying emergency housing assistance to those in danger of homelessness.
The New York experiment involves the city’s Homebase program, a very modest effort involving the annual expenditure of $23 million for job training, counseling and emergency funds that has been given to several thousand families each year since it began in 2004, with the aim of helping them to stay in their homes.
The Bloomberg administration, comparing its actions to the testing of new drug treatments, denied this emergency help to 200 of the 400 families applying to Homebase between June and August of this year. Those denied help were referred to other agencies.
Homeless advocates pointed to the fact that the city had earlier boasted that the Homebase program was a great success, one that had prevented homelessness in 90 percent of those who received assistance.
The real aim of the study was made clear in a statement by Seth Diamond, the commissioner of the city’s Homeless Services Department, quoted in the New York Times. By Diamond’s logic, the 90 percent who benefited by the Homebase program might be resourceful enough to have succeeded without it. Diamond acknowledged that his agency had to cut $20 million from its current budget, and that federal money for the program was expiring in 2012.
In other words, the city’s “experiment” is designed to justify and rationalize cuts in the meager housing assistance program that was established when Wall Street was booming and that can no longer be tolerated by the wealthy elite that runs New York. As most New Yorkers are well aware, the $23 million cost of the Homebase program is equivalent to perhaps one-tenth of one percent of the billions that will be handed out in Wall Street bonuses at the end of this year."
etc etc
Julia,
Your grandmother's lovely country house among the flowers in La Plata is exactly the place where I would like to go to play marbles in the next life.
Sandra, yes, soothing images, reminder of another kind of place and time... now forever gone.
John, thank you, and I regret to see that Ed Baker's extensive dialogue with you on this subject has just now been eradicated by Ed, who appears to be undergoing a new shy phase.
Tom,
Thanks and yes, that's it, "keep it going on" -- some of those kid "still kicking now" . . . .
12.16
light coming into sky above still black
ridge, silver of planet beside branches
in foreground, sound of wave in channel
corresponding facts divided
by form, sum of known
relation of material bodies,
there, distance which
silver of sunlight reflected in channel,
whiteness of gull flapping toward point
I have been sort of re-telling myself the story in this picture novel you've composed for a day now. Each of the Vachon photos really impresses itself on you. The kids with the marbles and the little girl are so charming and I wish I had the two pillar photos on my wall. (In fact I went to the Library of Congress website to see whether they were available for purchase, but apparently they're not, which is a pity. They should expand their selection and help stimulate the economy.) I'm not finished with All The Marbles yet.
Many thanks, Curtis and Steve.
I'm not sure I've got all my marbles, but I do have some more work by the great and seemingly inexhaustible Vachon to offer:
John Vachon: Mid-American
John Vachon: Blinds, Frames (Dubuque, Iowa, April 1940)
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