Russell Lee's Farm Security Photos
of Pacific Beach: 1940-1941
Russell
Lee
Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother
Russell Lee was an
American photographer and
photojournalist, best known for his work
for the Farm Security Administration
(FSA). His images documented the
ethnography of various American classes
and cultures. In the fall of 1936,
during the Great Depression, Lee was
hired for the federally-sponsored Farm
Security Administration (FSA)
photographic documentation project of
the Franklin D. Roosevelt
administration. He joined a team
assembled under Roy Stryker, along with
Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein and
Walker Evans. Stryker provided direction
and bureaucratic protection to the
group, leaving the photographers free to
compile what in 1973 was described as
"the greatest documentary collection
which has ever been assembled."
Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother,
taken in 1936 in Nipomo, California is
one of the iconic photos of the
collection. (Lee's photo captions
below are in italics)
There were still a
couple of trailer parks on the ocean
when Howard Rozelle took this aerial in
1946. Hornblend is the wide street
just south of Crystal Pier. I
suspect Russell Lee stood there near the
alley when he took the three photos
below in June of 1941.
From
the December 31, 1940 San Diego Union
classifieds
Looking south to the Scripps' properties, where Catamaran is today. The old fire station tower is visible left of center.
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