Stryker, Roy | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Roy Stryker

Born May 11, 1893
Great Bend, Kansas

Died September 26, 1975
Grand Junction, Colorado

Pictorial historian, documentarian

"We introduced Americans to America. The reason we could do this, I think…was that all of us [FSA photographers] in the unit, were so personally involved in the times, and the times were so peculiarly what they were."

Roy Stryker

Roy Stryker was not a photographer, but he understood that pictures spoke louder than words. His talent was recognizing great photographs that told a story, then compiling and organizing those photographs. In doing so Stryker played a key role in introducing documentary photography to the people of the United States. Documentary photographs tell so much about a subject that they can serve as historical documents. They record and mirror the social and political scene of a particular time, providing images of work, play, family, church, clubs, political organizations, and war.

Stryker moved to Washington, D.C., in 1935 to head the Historical Section of the Resettlement Administration (RA), which was later absorbed into the Department of Agriculture and renamed the Farm Security Administration (FSA). He had been hired to increase public awareness of Great Depression conditions through still photographs—and thereby win support for New Deal programs.

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