Here is a Kodachrome 4x5 (discontinued in 1951) made by Russell Lee in October of 1940:
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This was taken in October of 1940. I am 68 and was about the age of the baby in the father's lap. The other children are into ther 70's now and the parents, if alive are in their 90's.

This is one of the famous Pietown images taken by Russell Lee for the FSA, Farm Services Administration, later to become the War Information Service.

Several things are striking about this image. One is the Kodachrome --

"I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away."

Look at the quality of the image scan from the 4x5. LOC does not do any correcting to the image, so this has stood pristine for nearly 70 years! I have heard, -- and if you know any more about this let us know -- that Eastman made very few changes to Kodachrome over the year. Yeah, there was Kodachrome 64, but we're talking Kodachrome. I suppose the old axiom, "If it ain't broke...

And what a treasure this image is.

Do you think it is "arty?"

When you look at Lee's work in comparison to others working in the same venue, FSA, farmers, etc, you can see a real sense of composition.

This is a nice 35mm Kodachrome of the local gas station.
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It's a nice touch having some of the "townies" yakking it up in the picture.

The family picture has lots of nice dynamics. Everyone is in nice clean clothes, something difficult to obtain if you are living in a hole in the ground. These were called dugouts and were easier to keep warm in the cold winters and cooler in the hot summers but were primitive by any means. This was 1940 and these were homesteaders, mostly from Texas and Oklahoma. Perhaps dust bowl survivors. This was the Whinery family and it would be interesting to locate any living survivors in this picture.

The focal length of the lens and the smallness of the room has forced the family to squeeze together for the picture adding to the dynamic.

Three older girls and 2 boys. Five children and the oldest is maybe 8 or 9. Ok, no jokes about no tv on the farm!

The mother looks worn out and tired. The father is trying to look like the authority figure with a set jaw. Three of the children are looking straight at the camera an look excited. The two girls are looking away and are distracted.

What dynamics do you see in this picture?

--Dick