The American experience in the More American Photographs exhibit

¶ … American experience being constructed in the More American Photographs Exhibit?

More American Photographs: Exhibit at the Wexner Center

The recent More American Photographs exhibit at the Wexner Center juxtaposes photos from the 1930s taken by government photographers for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) with photos of ordinary Americans affected by the recent recession taken by professional photographers. The FSA-commissioned photos are striking because of the poverty which they depict, no matter how dignified the expressions of the farmers. It is difficult to recognize the women and men in tattered clothes with weather-beaten faces as recognizably American, so extreme is their poverty. Yet although the physical trappings of poverty in the contemporary photos may be less immediately obvious, the expressions of the people are no less heart-rending.

This is seen in the work of photographer Katy Grannan who took a number of photographs of families severely affected during the 2008 economic crisis. The contemporary color pictures do not show starving people in rags but the pictures are just as emotionally raw. One Grannan portrait labeled Untitled, Bakersfield, CA, 2011 shows a girl being embraced by her father. The girl has slightly frightened expression on her face, but while her father is holding her as if to protect her, he looks vulnerable, almost adolescent in his appearance. The father is skinny, with a tattoo on his side, and clutches a cigarette along with the wide-eyed, innocent child. It is as if he is desperately trying to comfort himself in some way, to cushion himself from harsh reality by smoking. The adult, male paternal figure in the girl's is clearly just as uncertain of the future as he is.

The child and her father stare at something slightly to the left of the gazer. It is as if both of them are looking at their futures, and it is bleak. The girl appears almost angelic, with soft blonde hair and tear-filled china blue eyes, but she wears an inappropriately sexual black bikini top with polka dots. Along with the father's cigarettes, the image suggests a young girl forced to grow up before her time because her father is unable to parent her. The father's naked chest underlines his raw, unprotected state and the lack of protection he can give his children.

A FSA portrait which resonates with the Grannan photograph can be found in the image of a work entitled Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California, 1936. The nearly emaciated woman cradles her chin in her face, looking slightly to the left of the photographer, just like the man in the Grannan photograph. Two of the mother's children bury their heads in each of her shoulders, but she looks away from them, as if she is too tired to give them any love. If it were not for the title of the photograph, it would be difficult to believe that she was their mother, given that she has no maternal tenderness in her eyes. The genders of the children are not even visible from the photograph because they are concealed by her face and shoulders. It is as if there is nothing she can do but turn away and rest her head in her hands.