From the depths of the Depression to the height of the Vietnam War, the photo essays in Life magazine told Americans how to see themselves. But in the 36 years that the magazine was published as a weekly, only six of its full-time photographers were women. A mix of published and unpublished shots and the contact sheets from exactly one photo essay by each of these six make up “Life: Six Women Photographers” at the New-York Historical Society’s Center for Women’s History. Her pictures of the Public Works Administration personnel who built it, and of the town that sprung up around them, are equally good. Wheeler, Mont., looks as gritty as an old penny, but the workers, caught socializing in a local bar, are as monumental as the dam itself.

Source: International New York Times July 03, 2019 17:48 UTC