Existing comment:
Ben Shahn
In his travels, Ben met storytellers, he met memorable personalities, he ate dinners in immaculate poverty-stricken homes and witnessed and photographed other homes falling apart -- roofless, sometimes with mud floors. He photographed men standing about, their hands clasped behind their backs, men sitting on curbstones, waiting, talking, women waiting in long lines before relief stations, families living in sheds made of cast-off packing boxes -- the famous Hoovervilles of the Thirties.
Ben headed south, photographing as he saw fit, towns, people, changing countryside, seeking always to understand, feeling both compassion and admiration for his subjects -- now his friends. He talked, listened, joined the people in church, learned their names, often wonderful names -- Plato Jordan, Jasper Lancaster, and Terwilliger family. |