During the 1930s in the United States, the Roosevelt administration sent out a number of photographers to record the dire situation of people who were hit hard by the Depression. The photographs were meant to invoke sympathy for and solidarity with the victims, but also to gain support for the government’s New Deal programs to fight poverty and unemployment. Some of these images have become icons in American history, like Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother.
The Danish American Peter Sekaer (1901-1950) is one of these lesser-known among these photographers. He admired the work of his fellow-countryman Jacob Riis, who raised awareness by photographing life in the slums of New York City during the late 1800s. Sekaer was very socially engaged, which is reflected in his pictures.
This photograph of two men in Nashville, Tennessee is probably part of a series Sekaer did for the United States Housing Authority, which was concerned with slum clearance and public housing projects. Living conditions were indeed hard for these men: the room shown in this photograph is completely bare, apart from a phonograph visible behind the two men. Music must have played an essential part in their lives, perhaps offering a temporary escape from their daily sorrows.
The image is part of the Rijksmuseum’s twentieth-century photography exhibition, on display until February 14, 2011.
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