The FSA Black Hole Photographs: Censorship As Accidental Art

Censorship is scary, and too much censorship results in very normal human things becoming alien and terrifying to eyes which have been shielded from the truth for too long.

But in the case of the collection known as the FSA Black Hole Photos censorship becomes a kind of accidental art, either that or these important images from the Great Depression era are totally ruined.

Roy Stryker, the director of the Farm Security Administration's historical section, was hired to assemble a photography dream team to document the lives of laborers during the Great Depression.

The photos, taken by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks and many others, would be used to combat rural poverty by getting Congress to approve New Deal relief legislation, and Roy had control over all submitted photos.

So Roy used a hole punch on original negatives from these famous photographers to effectively censor them forever, choosing which images made the cut and which didn't with the click of the punch.

But what Roy was censoring remains unclear, as many of his decisions seem to be arbitrary at best as he punches out the sun, parts of people's faces, and things people are holding for no apparent reason.

Read more about Black Holes: Censorship's Handiwork Creates Eerie Photographs here


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