Roy Stryker
Encyclopedia
Roy Emerson Stryker was an American economist, government official, and photographer
. He is most famous for heading the Information Division of the Farm Security Administration
(FSA) during the Great Depression
and launching the documentary photography movement of the FSA.
After serving in the infantry in World War I, Stryker went to Columbia University
where he studied economics. He used his photography to illustrate his economics texts and lectures. At Columbia, he worked with Rexford Tugwell
, and when Tugwell became part of the Resettlement Administration
, Stryker followed him. Tugwell and Stryker refocused the attention of the Resettlement Administration to document the problems of the heartland, and in 1935 Stryker became the head of the Historical Section (Information Division) of the RA. The RA was renominated the Farm Security Administration, and Stryker set up the photodocumentary project.
Stryker's greatest contribution to the FSA's photographic project was as a manager. The photographers involved attested to the fact that Stryker was expert at getting good work out of them. He made sure that the photographers were well briefed on their assigned areas before being sent out, and he ensured that they were properly funded. Stryker also made sure that mainstream publications had access to FSA photographs. This both helped focus public attention on the plight of the rural poor and set up the commercial careers of his photographers. Overall, from 164,000 developed negatives some 77,000 different finished photographic prints were made for the press, plus 644 color images.
Photographers hired by Stryker for the FSA included: Dorothea Lange
, Arthur Rothstein
, Walker Evans
, Ben Shahn
, John Vachon
, Marion Post Wolcott
, Russell Lee
, Jack Delano
, Gordon Parks
, John Collier Jr, Carl Mydans
, and Edwin and Louise Rosskam
.
During World War II
, the photographic unit of the FSA was reassigned to the Office of War Information and put to more propagandistic uses for one year, and then disbanded. At the same time, the US Congress disbanded the FSA, and the holdings of the FSA's photographic unit were transferred to the Library of Congress
.
Stryker resigned and went to work for Standard Oil
in its public relations documentary project from 1943 to 1950.
In selecting photographers for projects at Standard Oil (SO), Stryker sought those who possessed an "insatiable curiosity, the kind that can get to the core of an assignment, the kind that can comprehend what a truck driver, or a farmer, or a driller or a housewife thinks and feels and translate those thoughts and feelings into pictures that can be similarly comprehended by anyone."
Photographers on the SO project included, among others: Berenice Abbott
, Gordon Parks
and Todd Webb
; as well as Esther Bubley
, Harold Corsini
, Russell Lee
, Arnold Eagle, Elliott Erwitt
and Sol Libsohn
, who would later follow Stryker to his next project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
. After suggesting topics he wanted documented, Stryker gave his photographers the freedom to pursue their individual approaches to their subjects. As with all his projects, Stryker was adamant that his staff understand their subjects and their context before going out on an assignment.
From 1950 to 1952, Stryker worked to establish the Pittsburgh Photographic Library
(PPL). In 1960, the collection was transferred to the Carnegie Library
of Pittsburgh.
After leaving the PPL, Stryker directed a documentation project at Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation
. Thereafter, he accepted consulting jobs on occasion and conducted seminars on photo-journalism at the University of Missouri
. Stryker eventually returned to the west in the 1960s. He died in Grand Junction, Colorado
.
The Roy Stryker Papers, including manuscripts, correspondence, and vintage prints from the Stryker-directed projects—Farm Security Administration (FSA), the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Co. and Jones & Laughlin Steel—are held in Photographic Archives, Special Collections, William F. Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville.
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
. He is most famous for heading the Information Division of the Farm Security Administration
Farm Security Administration
Initially created as the Resettlement Administration in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty...
(FSA) during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and launching the documentary photography movement of the FSA.
After serving in the infantry in World War I, Stryker went to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
where he studied economics. He used his photography to illustrate his economics texts and lectures. At Columbia, he worked with Rexford Tugwell
Rexford Tugwell
Rexford Guy Tugwell was an agricultural economist who became part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first "Brain Trust," a group of Columbia academics who helped develop policy recommendations leading up to Roosevelt's 1932 election as President...
, and when Tugwell became part of the Resettlement Administration
Resettlement Administration
The Resettlement Administration was a U.S. federal agency that, between April 1935 and December 1936, relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government....
, Stryker followed him. Tugwell and Stryker refocused the attention of the Resettlement Administration to document the problems of the heartland, and in 1935 Stryker became the head of the Historical Section (Information Division) of the RA. The RA was renominated the Farm Security Administration, and Stryker set up the photodocumentary project.
Stryker's greatest contribution to the FSA's photographic project was as a manager. The photographers involved attested to the fact that Stryker was expert at getting good work out of them. He made sure that the photographers were well briefed on their assigned areas before being sent out, and he ensured that they were properly funded. Stryker also made sure that mainstream publications had access to FSA photographs. This both helped focus public attention on the plight of the rural poor and set up the commercial careers of his photographers. Overall, from 164,000 developed negatives some 77,000 different finished photographic prints were made for the press, plus 644 color images.
Photographers hired by Stryker for the FSA included: Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...
, Arthur Rothstein
Arthur Rothstein
Arthur Rothstein was an American photographer.Rothstein is recognized as one of America’s premier photojournalists. During a career that spanned five decades, he provoked, entertained and informed the American people...
, Walker Evans
Walker Evans
Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
, Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...
, John Vachon
John Vachon
-External links:*...
, Marion Post Wolcott
Marion Post Wolcott
Marion Post was a noted photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty and deprivation. She was born in New Jersey. Her parents split up and she was sent to boarding school, spending time at home with her mother in Greenwich Village...
, Russell Lee
Russell Lee (photographer)
Russell Lee was an American photographer and photojournalist.Lee had trained as a chemical engineer, and in the fall of 1936 became a member of the team of photographers assembled under Roy Stryker for the federally sponsored Farm Security Administration documentation project...
, Jack Delano
Jack Delano
Jack Delano was an American photographer for the Farm Security Administration and a composer noted for his use of Puerto Rican folk material.- Biography :...
, Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
, John Collier Jr, Carl Mydans
Carl Mydans
Carl Mydans was an American photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration and Life magazine....
, and Edwin and Louise Rosskam
Louise Rosskam
Louise Rosskam was a photographer for the Farm Security Administration and the Standard Oil Company during the mid-20th century. Together with her husband, Edwin Rosskam , the pair documented American life during the Great Depression...
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the photographic unit of the FSA was reassigned to the Office of War Information and put to more propagandistic uses for one year, and then disbanded. At the same time, the US Congress disbanded the FSA, and the holdings of the FSA's photographic unit were transferred to the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
.
Stryker resigned and went to work for Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
in its public relations documentary project from 1943 to 1950.
In selecting photographers for projects at Standard Oil (SO), Stryker sought those who possessed an "insatiable curiosity, the kind that can get to the core of an assignment, the kind that can comprehend what a truck driver, or a farmer, or a driller or a housewife thinks and feels and translate those thoughts and feelings into pictures that can be similarly comprehended by anyone."
Photographers on the SO project included, among others: Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott , born Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s.-Youth:...
, Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
and Todd Webb
Todd Webb
Todd Webb was an American photographer notable for documenting everyday life and architecture in cities such as New York, Paris as well as from the American west. His photography has been compared with Harry Callahan, Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, and the French photographer Eugène Atget...
; as well as Esther Bubley
Esther Bubley
Esther Bubley was an American photographer who specialized in expressive photos of ordinary people in everyday lives.-Biography:...
, Harold Corsini
Harold Corsini
Harold Corsini was an American photographer.Harold Corsini was born to Italian immigrants in New York City and began his career there as a freelancer. A photo he took when he was about 16, an aerial shot of football players, is archived in the George Eastman Collection in Rochester, New York...
, Russell Lee
Russell Lee (photographer)
Russell Lee was an American photographer and photojournalist.Lee had trained as a chemical engineer, and in the fall of 1936 became a member of the team of photographers assembled under Roy Stryker for the federally sponsored Farm Security Administration documentation project...
, Arnold Eagle, Elliott Erwitt
Elliott Erwitt
Elliott Erwitt is an advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings— a master of Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment"....
and Sol Libsohn
Sol Libsohn
Sol Libsohn was a self-taught photographer who originally earned his living documenting paintings. He co-founded the Photo League with Sid Grossman. Libsohn was an important teacher at the League as well as a member and leader of numerous production groups...
, who would later follow Stryker to his next project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. After suggesting topics he wanted documented, Stryker gave his photographers the freedom to pursue their individual approaches to their subjects. As with all his projects, Stryker was adamant that his staff understand their subjects and their context before going out on an assignment.
From 1950 to 1952, Stryker worked to establish the Pittsburgh Photographic Library
Pittsburgh Photographic Library
The Pittsburgh Photographic Library is a photography repository held by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh of over 50,000 prints and negatives relating to history of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States...
(PPL). In 1960, the collection was transferred to the Carnegie Library
Carnegie Library
Carnegie Library, Carnegie Public Library, Carnegie Free Library, Carnegie Free Public Library, Andrew Carnegie Library, Andrew Carnegie Free Library or Carnegie Library Building may refer to any of the following Carnegie libraries:- California :*Carnegie Library , listed on the National Register...
of Pittsburgh.
After leaving the PPL, Stryker directed a documentation project at Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation
Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
The earliest foundations of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company were the American Iron Company, founded in 1851 by Bernard Lauth, and B. F. Jones founded in 1852a few miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in 1854 by James H. Laughlin...
. Thereafter, he accepted consulting jobs on occasion and conducted seminars on photo-journalism at the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
. Stryker eventually returned to the west in the 1960s. He died in Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction, Colorado
The City of Grand Junction is the largest city in western Colorado. It is a city with a council–manager government form that is the county seat and the most populous city of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Grand Junction is situated west-southwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. As...
.
The Roy Stryker Papers, including manuscripts, correspondence, and vintage prints from the Stryker-directed projects—Farm Security Administration (FSA), the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Co. and Jones & Laughlin Steel—are held in Photographic Archives, Special Collections, William F. Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville.