My mother was born a year before the start of the “Great Depression”, hopefully she will die well after the end of this one.
It all started as I was transferring photo files from my mother’s computer to surprise her with a new digital frame. As I was editing the photos to load on the frame, I came across old family photos that my cousin had scanned from my grandparent’s photo album.
Looking at those somber faces at my grandparent’s wedding in 1927 (nobody ever smiled for photos back then) I began to wonder if they had any premonition where country was heading, and the effects of the great depression they were about to endure.
My grandfather, Clarence Andrew Severin married my grandmother Rose Boos, on June 1 of 1927 in Atchison, Kansas. It must have been a typical middle class wedding, my grandfather was a banker at the time, but were from mid-western farm families.
The following year, my grandfather was selling stocks and bonds to many of the prominent businessmen in northeast Kansas. My grandmother and he, also became proud parents to my mother, Rose Marie.
One of his clients was Atchison businessman Herb Muchnic, founder of Locomotive Finish Materials Company (LFM). He was one of the wealthiest men in town, with an opulent home on the bluffs of the Missouri River.
A few weeks before Black Thursday on October 24th of 1929, my grandfather convinced Mr. Muchnic and some of his clients, to let him travel to Chicago to divest their interests in stocks and bonds. It was a decision that changed how our family came through the depression.
Because of his quick actions, my grandfather was able to secure a job with LFM as an executive. While the rest of the country suffered through the more than 10 years of depression, our family led a relatively secure lifestyle.
The “Great Depression” has had a lasting influence on society. My grandparent’s and my mother’s generations would live life frugally; always worried that another drop was just around the corner. My generation, the baby-boomers, would be torn between the frugality our parents practiced, and the reckless abandonment of spending. But the “Great Depression” also brought to the forefront something that would have a lasting influence on my life….photojournalism.
Photojournalism grew out of the depression of 1929.
The FSA was a New Deal agency designed to combat rural poverty during a period when the agricultural climate and national economy were causing great dislocations in rural life. Contrary to popular association, photography was not the primary work of the Farm Security Administration. The photographers who worked under the name of the FSA were hired on for public relations; they were supposed to provide visual evidence that
Wednesday afternoon as I was doing a shoot in Dallas, I thought how great it was to live in Texas in the winter. It was a balmy 82 as I photographed Motorola two-way radios being used in various situations for my clients website. I love warm weather.
