June 2024 • Nebraskaland 45
ohn Vachon (1914-1975) was not yet a famous
photographer when he arrived in Omaha in October
1938. It was his fi rst extensive solo trip shooting photos
for the U.S. government's Farm Security Administration.
Partly as a way to build support for the New Deal, the agency
was creating a nationwide pictorial record of the Great
Depression.
Vachon's supervisor gave the 24-year-old a great deal of
leeway in the Omaha assignment. Vachon recognized the
opportunity he had been given: "For the past year, I had been
sedulously aping the masters. And in Omaha, I realized that
I had developed my own style with the camera. I knew that
I would photograph only what pleased me or astonished my
eye, and only in the way I saw it."
From Omaha, Vachon headed west, photographing scenes
in Lincoln, North Platte and a handful of other Nebraska
communities. The photos he added to the FSA's fi les provided
a visual cross-section of the state at that time, capturing the
human drama in ordinary scenes.
Vachon visited Lincoln in 1942 — and this time his camera
bag included a limited supply of color fi lm. He explored a
changing capital city only months after U.S. entry into World
War II.
Together, these photos provide an early example of
Vachon's emerging style, which became well known to the
public during his long postwar career as a staff photographer
for Look magazine.
Former Look magazine editor Thomas B. Morgan described
Vachon as "a taciturn, brooding, hard-drinking man, a product
of the Great Depression, who traveled about the American
heartland and around the world for nearly 40 years, taking
candid pictures of everyday realities in people's lives."
Morgan said Vachon was "a quiet man, shy to the point
of disability," but clearly he was able to talk strangers into
letting him take their photograph. Vachon provided limited
information for each photo, but mostly he let the scenes and
the faces speak for themselves.
You can see more of Vachon's Nebraska photos by searching
"Vachon Nebraska" at loc.gov.
Visit History Nebraska's website at history.nebraska.gov.
"Unemployed man, Omaha." LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
ough John Vachon's Lens
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