Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
June 1940. "Melrose, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Daughter of mulatto family returning home after fishing in the Cane River." Medium format negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
"Mulatto"? Really now? I couldn't tell the difference.
Appearantly Apparently even the audience of the time needed to be told that kind of petty, superfluous details, lest they might miss it. A kind of detail which does not add anything to the photograph or the person shown by it in the first place.
[A survey of poverty conditions within the Depression-era agricultural workforce - which was one of the FSA's missions - shouldn't have recorded ethnographic and demographic information? - tterrace]
[The Creole "French mulatto" community of mixed-race slave descendants surrounding the John Henry cotton plantation in Natchitoches Parish was the subject of dozens of photos taken by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration, as well as numerous historical and ethnographic studies. -Dave]
A beauty like that, the print dress, the hat, the ribbon - that look could fit in a fashion magazine today.
And the portrait skills of Marion Post Wolcott are stunning. Shooting from low to get the mottled sky background makes it look like a studio photo.
Wow.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5