The Photographs of Russell Lee

Providing a unique view of American life during the Great Depression and Second World War, each volume in the Fields of Vision series focuses on a single photographer whose vision helped shape the collective identity of America and influenced the way we look at photographs in the 21st century. All of the images in each volume are chosen from the Library of Congress’s renowned collection of Farm Security Administration (FSA) and Office of War Information (OWI) photographs.

Russell Lee (1903–1986) left a career as a chemical engineer to become a painter and later a photographer. In 1936, he was hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographic project, where he created some of the most iconic images produced by the FSA, including photographic studies of San Augustine, Texas, and Pie Town, New Mexico, as well as the eviction of Japanese Americans from the West Coast in 1942.