Robert McNeill and black government photographers

Abstract

Abstract American photo-historians and other scholars of culture have long assumed that the only major black photographer working in the civilian sector of the Federal Government during the Depression and Second World War era was Gordon Parks. The assumption is understandable, in light of Parks's obvious photographic creativity, his talent for selfpromotion in recent decades, and a common scholarly tendency to consider Office of War Information (OWI) photographic production solely in terms of the particular unit rooted in the Farm Security Administration (FSA) project that launched Parks's documentary career. Relevant, too, is the current desire of photo-historical revisionists to focus on the limiting impact of FSA photographic director Roy Stryker — the pernicious white male bureaucrat, according to recent renderings — whose initial reluctance to bring on Parks is well known. 1 However much the ‘lone black’ assumption may suit scholars' needs, or Gordon Parks's needs, it is quite erroneous.