The Photographic Essay as Index of African-American Identity in the Interwar Years: "Black Saturday," Roll, Jordan, Roll, You Have Seen Their Faces, and 12 Million Black Voices

• Other Authors: Watson, Keri W. (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Art > History; Architecture > History; Archaeology > History
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-4660

This dissertation examines the intersecting space between word and image that characterizes the photographic essay as a distinct medium. To illustrate the power negotiations that occur in the interstices of word and image, this dissertation applies art critic Elizabeth McCausland's 1943 theory of the genre to four Depression-era photographic essays concerned with African-American life: Eudora Welty's "Black Saturday," Julia Peterkin and Doris Ulmann's Roll, Jordan, Roll (1933); Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White's You Have Seen Their Faces (1937); and Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam's 12 Million Black Voices (1941). By examining these photo-texts created and published during the interwar years, I hope to parse the medium-specificity of both the genre's constitutive parts (the photograph and the text) while also respecting the hybrid form (one marked by struggle rather than equality) that their combination creates. Investigation of these photographic essays within this theoretical framework and in the context of 1930s publishing practices illustrates the power of the photographic essay to construct racial identities and broadens the critical understanding of the compelling yet confusing genre that is the photographic essay. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Summer Semester, 2010. === April 26, 2010. === Word and Image, Eudora Welty, Documentary Photography, Photographic Essay, Great Depression, Richard Wright, Edwin Rosskam, Erskine Caldwell, Julia Peterkin, Doris Ulmann, Margaret Bourke-White === Includes bibliographical references. === Robert Neuman, Professor Directing Dissertation; Diane Roberts, University Representative; Lauren Weingarden, Committee Member; Adam Jolles, Committee Member.