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.
March 1936. "Frame houses, Fredericksburg, Virginia." Large-format nitrate negative by Walker Evans for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
If anyone knows the street or general area this was taken in, I can snag a modern picture for comparison.
I like the ripples and sags along the eaves. That does look like someone standing there - a woman? looks a bit chesty?
Those houses are of the classic "shotgun shack" or "shotgun house" design.
...the ones who put up this row of houses were tenant farmers organized into work groups by the FSA, not professional framers. Switching those two letters in farmer and framer can be crucial in the result, as seen in the photo. And on the other side of the coin, a framer would doubtless produce some sorry crops and animals. Bless all of them, those were proud people doing the best they could.
Is that someone standing there, or is it just an illusion?
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5