The Photographs of Ben Shahn

Published in association with the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., "Fields of Vision: Recording a Century of American Life" is a completely new presentation of an historically significant collection of photographs. The 77,000 photographs in the Library of Congress' collection from the Resettlement Administration (RA, 1935-1937), Farm Security Administration (FSA, 1937-1942) and Office of War Information (OWI, 1942-1944) provide a unique and comprehensive view of American life from 1935 to 1944 during the Great Depression. This government photography project was initially conceived to document government loans to farmers and their resettlement in suburban communities, but expanded to create a visual record of agricultural and urban centres in the South, Mid-West and Western United States.