ticketsMember | Make a donation

[African American Family at Gee's Bend, Alabama]

1937
Not on view
As one of the first three photographers hired by Roy Stryker at the Farm Security Administration, Rothstein became intimately familiar with the plight of rural families during the Depression. In this photograph, he deftly communicates the individual personalities of each family member despite the formality of the group pose. The image was reproduced in Richard Wright's photo-text book, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (1941), in which the acclaimed author of Native Son and Black Boy combined New Deal photographs with his words to trace African-American history from slavery, through emancipation, sharecropping, and northern migration, to contemporary joblessness and racial prejudice.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [African American Family at Gee's Bend, Alabama]
  • Artist: Arthur Rothstein (American, 1915–1985)
  • Date: 1937
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 18.1 x 24.1 cm (7 1/8 x 9 1/2 in. )
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2001
  • Object Number: 2001.298
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Father and Sons in a Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, Arthur Rothstein American, Gelatin silver print
Father and Sons in a Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma
Arthur Rothstein
1936
Cowhand Trying Saddle. Saddlery, Elko, Nevada, March 1940
Arthur Rothstein
1940
Sheep in Stockyards Awaiting Shipment, Belfield, North Dakota
Arthur Rothstein
1936
Oklahoma Dust Storm
Arthur Rothstein
1930s, printed late 1950s
Blue Ridge Mountain Postmaster
Arthur Rothstein
1930s, printed ca. 1959

Related Content

Perspectives

Articles, audio, and video from The Met's online magazine.

Publications

Books, guides, and catalogues published by The Met.

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.