Ben Shahn (Lithuanian/American, 1898-1969), "Road Closed", c. 1935 negative creation date, later print, gelatin silver print, unsigned, commissioned by the Resettlement Administration/Farm Security Administration for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, inscribed and 2 partial Farm Security Administration stamps one with artist en verso, label with artist and date and "Ambiance by Parker, Nashville, TN" label on backing board, 6 in. x 9 1/2 in., framed, overall 12 3/4 in. x 16 1/4 in. x 1 1/2 in. Note: While known primarily as a social realist painter who worked with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Ben Shahn was also a photographer for a decade from 1935 to 1945. His roommate and good friend, Walker Evans, would take him around New York, and they would shoot street photography together, which Shahn primarily used as a reference tool for his paintings. In 1935, Evans took a job with the Resettlement Administration, and Shahn jumped at the chance to join him. From 1935 to 1938, he, along with Evans and Dorothea Lang, were driven around the South by his wife Bernarda Bryson to document the area. The trip yielded not only some of the most powerful depictions of the Great Depression (and poverty in general), but also some of the most famous photographs in the history of the medium. Shahn’s work had always been about protest, fighting against injustice and prejudice, and photography was the perfect way to express his progressive ideas and shed light on the unfairness that afflicted so much of the general populace at the time. He consciously avoided using concepts he learned in his academic training, choosing instead to focus only on the subject at hand as is evident in the photo offered here: a quaint yet powerful view of an empty street and carousel, the absence of people deafening in black and white. In subsequent years Shahn’s use of the camera slowly declined until the late 1940s when he stopped using it altogether, but his images from that era continue to resonate to this day. Ref.: Harlan, Phillip. “An Interview with Ben Shan”, ASX. Mar. 19, 2011.

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