youhaven'tseentheir faces.pdf (1.48 MB)
You haven't seen their faces: eugenic national housekeeping and documentary photography in 1930s America
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-21, 06:02 authored by Sue CurrellThis essay explores the relationship between welfare, eugenics and documentary photography during the New Deal in order to explain how a set of government photographs taken by Arthur Rothstein in the Shenandoah became entwined in the rhetorical structure of eugenic ideology. The photographs discussed portray victims of forced sterilization before their incarceration, yet there is no evidence to show that the photographer was aware of, or complicit with, this fact. This essay responds to the questions this raises about the images: what historical and social contingencies were behind their production? What is the relationship between the photographer, the photographs, the New Deal and the subjects depicted? How did efforts to help America's poorest lead to their incarceration and sterilization? Why is the full picture impossible to see? And how do we read and understand them today?
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Journal of American StudiesISSN
0021-8758Publisher
Cambridge University PressExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
51Page range
481-511Department affiliated with
- English Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Centre for American Studies Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2017-03-31First Open Access (FOA) Date
2017-06-21First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2017-04-25Usage metrics
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