Arthur Rothstein Oklahoma Photograph

Arthur Rothstein Oklahoma Photograph

Arthur Rothstein made some of the most significant documentary photographs ever taken of rural and small-town America.

These images were created during his years traveling throughout the nation on assignment for the US Farm Security Administration, one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” agencies that restored and rebuilt an America devastated by the Great Depression.

In 1940, Rothstein joined the staff of Look magazine.

With the start of the WWll, Rothstein completed photojournalistic assignments for the US Army Signal Corps in China, Burma, and India.

After a short assignment for the United Nations, he returned to Look magazine, where he served as director of photography for 25 years during the Golden Age of post-war photo magazines.

He then held the same position for Parade magazine for 15 years, until his death in 1985.

During his years in magazine photojournalism Rothstein continued his own work, teaching, writing nine books as well as numerous newspaper and magazine columns on photography.

His photographs of America during the Great Depression were some of the most widely-published photographs of the 20th century, and are held in the collections of major museums around the world.

Dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936. Photo by Arthur Rothstein. Courtesy of Arthur Rothstein Legacy Project.

Arthur Rothstein was twenty years old when he took this photograph in 1936.

He had been photographing Arthur Coble and his small sons Milton and Darrel on the Coble farm when the wind picked up.

The photographer headed for his car while the Coble family made a run for the farmhouse.

Rothstein reached his car and turned around to wave goodbye. He saw the family walking against the wind.

This image became a symbol of the hard times that affected millions of Americans during the Great Depression.

This Arthur Rothstein exhibit is made possible by the Arthur Rothstein Legacy Project.