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Lauren Tilton on FSA-OWI Photography

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Just because you didn’t get to go to that awesome photography conference doesn’t mean that you can’t learn something from the pros! Occasionally, we’ll be featuring a recommended photography lecture or interview on Phototuts+.

Today, we're presenting Yale graduate student Lauren Tilton's presentation about the largest photography project ever commissioned by the United States government. The government's New Deal was supposed to bring America out of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl eras.

When the program started receiving criticism, official launched decided to show easterners what was going in the in the West through photography. It was a huge PR campaign that resulted in some of the most quintessential American documentary of the 20th century, and one of the most important photography collections in the U.S.

The duties of the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information shifted as War World II approached.

You can view over 160,000 of the FSA-OWI photos at this Library of Congress site.

Preview Image: "Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange.

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