Killing the Negative: A Conversation in Art & Verse

With the stated goal of “introducing America to Americans,” the Farm Security Administration (FSA) commissioned photographers to travel across the United States and document the hardships of the Great Depression between 1935-43. Images like Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936) by Arthur Rothstein or Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California (1936) by Dorothea Lange have come to represent the Great Depression in American memory. Roy E. Stryker, who headed the information division of the FSA, screened hundreds of thousands of negatives submitted by the photographers. He wielded his editorial power through an irreversible act—by punching holes in 35mm negatives. Once punched, the images could not be used—whether in popular magazines or in Congressional presentations about the plight of Americans. This destructive editing process was called “killing the negative.”