cover image Let Us Now Praise Famous Women: Women Photographers for the U.S. Government, 1935 to 1944: Esther Bubley, Marjory Collins, Pauline Ehrlich, Dorothea L

Let Us Now Praise Famous Women: Women Photographers for the U.S. Government, 1935 to 1944: Esther Bubley, Marjory Collins, Pauline Ehrlich, Dorothea L

Andrea Fisher. Rivers Oram Press, $16.95 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-86358-123-6

Fisher has compiled the photographs of eight women who worked for the Farm Security Administration's documentation project in the 1930s and 1940s. The work of Dorthea Lange is well known, but the inclusion of shots by Esther Bubley, Ann Rosener, Pauline Ehrlich and other lesser-known photographers presents an unusual perspective on American life during the period. Intimacy and female rites of passage predominate here (in contrast to the scenes of farming hardships that characterize other famous FSA photos). Fisher's essay both obscures and illuminates these pictures: her interpretations of the photos seem strained, but her discussion of the photographers' lives and working conditions give great insight into the challenges faced by independent women of the time. (August)