Friday, 11 February 2011

Carl Mydans: Unknowable Communities


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On the road from Manville to Bound Brook, New Jersey: photo by Carl Mydans, February 1936

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Series of identical houses, Manville, New Jersey: photo by Carl Mydans, February 1936

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Cincinnati, Ohio: photo by Carl Mydans, December 1935 (US Resettlement Administration)

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Typical wood frame house, Hamilton County, Ohio: photo by Carl Mydans, December 1935 (US Resettlement Administration)

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"Blight house", Hamilton County, Ohio: photo by Carl Mydans, December 1935 (US Resettlement Administration)

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Junk, with living quarters close by, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: photo by Carl Mydans, April 1936

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View from living quarters at 730 West Winnebago Street, looking toward alley, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: photo by Carl Mydans, April 1936

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Group of houses at Detroit and Van Buren Streets, near electric railroad, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: photo by Carl Mydans, April 1936

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Slums, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: photo by Carl Mydans, April 1936

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House exterior on Van Horn Street, Hamilton County, Ohio: photo by Carl Mydans, December 1935 (US Resettlement Administration)

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House exterior on Van Horn Street, Hamilton County, Ohio: photo by Carl Mydans, December 1935 (US Resettlement Administration)

Photos from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress
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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous12 February 2011 at 03:10

    I hadn't forgotten the earlier Mydans images and was drawn to read more about him, e.g., in this appreciation:

    http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0409/halstead.html

    This series is sorrowful and devastating. Considered as part of the broader canvas of his work and subject matter, Mydans is really a great, unique artist and, as they say (when they can't find the right words), "something more".

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  2. TC12 February 2011 at 08:51

    There is as you say something unique in Mydans' vision. He was working for the Resettlement Administration as early as 1935, after which that agency was subsumed by the FSA, so his work captures an earlier moment.

    And in his self-assigned investigations of "blight housing" around industrial cities, he found images of spaces that seem entirely closed off from us -- and from each other.

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  3. Bowie Hagan14 February 2011 at 06:52

    Tom,

    Of 'knowable communities"; that common ground which is, and was the ground of existence. Thanks.

    Best,
    Bowie

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  4. TC14 February 2011 at 09:24

    Still looking for the lives that were lived behind those walls...

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  5. Detroit18 March 2012 at 18:26

    The caption for this graphic is wrong, wrong, wrong...

    The street there was the former 900 block of Hibernia (the short half street or named alley between Clybourn Street and St. Paul Avenue, SE of Marquette University)--now replaced by a freeway within the I-94 Marquette Interchange, AFAIK.

    http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8b28000/8b28600/8b28645v.jpg

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  6. TC18 March 2012 at 23:26

    Here's the link to the photo in the archive.

    Group of houses at Detroit and Van Buren Streets.

    Here is the Mydans caption for that shot:

    Group of houses at Detroit and Van Buren Streets, near electric railroad. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Carl Mydans, 1936 April.

    ReplyDelete