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The Great Depression, Now in Color

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Posted on Nov 8, 2011
U.S. Library of Congress

Picture, if you will, the Great Depression. Unless you actually lived through it, or close enough, chances are your mind might conjure up images of bread lines, bleak Dust Bowl landscapes or hungry, huddled families, and they’re probably in black and white.

That’s what makes these Depression-era photos taken by photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the Office of War Information (OWI) so striking. The International Business Times ran them in two installments in the spring, but their historical value hasn’t changed since then, and many of the images are quite arresting.

Click here to see the first batch and here to view the second.

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(All images from Library of Congress)


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By particle61, November 9, 2011 at 10:07 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

~
I thought the title of this piece was an artful way to express that we are all experiencing the new depression - and this time, in 40 million digital colors
see acmeartscollective.com/acmerecords for the civilian conservation corps playing songs for the new depression
increase empathy/embrace activism

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By Raoul, November 9, 2011 at 5:34 am Link to this comment

Years from now they’ll be showing pics of the 2nd great depression which we’re living under now.

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EmileZ's avatar

By EmileZ, November 8, 2011 at 8:06 pm Link to this comment

I am also intrigued by these images, but at the same time I am disappointed that the trial of Goldman Sachs didn’t rate a longer stay in the top three of the AV booth.

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oddsox's avatar

By oddsox, November 8, 2011 at 4:45 pm Link to this comment

I’ve seen these before, they’re compelling.
Even old “colorized” photos are bewitchingly fascinating.

Makes you wonder what Ken Burn’s Civil War would have looked liked .... probably too much for us to take.

By the way, with the election year coming up, watch how often the “opponent” is featured frowning in a black & white photo, while the “approved this ad” candidate has the Ipana smile & is in full color.
That’s been going on for decades now.
Easy to see why that’s such an effective tactic.

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