John Vachon
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John Felix Vachon (May 19, 1914 – April 20, 1975) was a world traveling American
photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...
. Vachon is remembered most for his photography working for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) as part of the New Deal and for contributions to '' Look'' magazine.


Biography

John Vachon was born on May 19, 1914 to a middle class
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Family in
Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...
. He was the son of Ann Marie (O'Hara) and Harry Parnell Vachon. His parents were not well off, his father made a get-by living as a traveling salesman in stationery supplies.He had one younger brother named Robert. Vachon had a Catholic education and graduated from Cretin High School local military Catholic high school (now
Cretin-Derham Hall High School Cretin-Derham Hall High School (CDH) is a private, co-educational Catholic high school in Saint Paul, Minnesota operated by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. It is co-sponsored by the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Sist ...
). He continued his education at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul and received a bachelor's degree in 1934. Vachon moved to
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
after receiving a fellowship to attend graduate school at Catholic University of America to study English literature and become a writer. As he began his studies, a few months later, he was forced to leave school due to his drinking. After his leave from graduate school, Vachon looked for work around Washington D.C.,finding his first job in photography working for the Farm Security Administration's Historic Division as one of the photographers hired by Roy Stryker to document the plight of migrants during the Great Depression. In about 1938 Vachon married Millicent Leeper who was known as Penny. While Vachon was on the road working as a photographer for the FSA, he wrote daily letters to Penny, as well as to his mother. He wrote them to describe his experiences, ambitions, self-doubt, sense of humor, obligation to the FSA, the people he met, the news he read about, and the movies he watched. In the letters, Vachon describes how he relied on Penny to support him and his work. They had three children. Penny committed suicide in 1960. Vachon married Marie Francoise Fourestier in 1961. They had two more children. Vachon served in the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
in 1945. Vachon's daughter,
Christine Vachon Christine Vachon (; born November 21, 1962) is an American film producer active in the American independent film sector. Christine Vachon produced Todd Haynes' first feature, ''Poison'', which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundan ...
, became an independent film producer in adulthood and son Micheal became an editor whom worked with his father in later years.


Career


Farm Security Administration

The FSA was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. The FSA is famous for its small but highly influential photography program which began in 1935 under its prior name and mission as the
Resettlement Administration The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm S ...
. The photo program ran until 1944, documenting the challenges of rural poverty and farm life. John Vachon's first job at the FSA carried the title "assistant messenger." He was twenty-one, and had come to Washington D.C from his native
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
to attend
The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...
. Vachon had no intention of becoming a photographer when he took the position in 1936, but as his responsibilities increased for maintaining the FSA photographic file, his interest in photography grew. The FSA sent more than forty photographers into the field and collected images of American life that would result in an archive of 165,000 FSA prints. Some FSA employees had well-established careers, while others become famous as photographers as a result of their work, including
Esther Bubley Esther Bubley (February 16, 1921 – March 16, 1998) was an American photographer who specialized in expressive photos of ordinary people in everyday lives. She worked for several agencies of the American government and her work also featured in s ...
,
Marjory Collins Marjory Collins (1912–1985) was an American photojournalist. She is remembered for her coverage of the home front during World War II. Personal life Marjory Collins was born March 15, 1912, to Elizabeth Everts Paine and writer Frederick Lewis ...
,
Marion Post Wolcott Marion Post Wolcott (June 7, 1910 – November 24, 1990) was an American photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty, the Jim Crow South, and deprivation. Early life Marion ...
,
Jack Delano Jack Delano (born Jacob Ovcharov; August 1, 1914 – August 12, 1997) was a Ukrainian immigrant who became an accomplished photographer for the Works Progress Administration, United Fund, and most notably, the Farm Security Administration (FSA). ...
,
Arthur Rothstein Arthur Rothstein (July 17, 1915 – November 11, 1985) was an American photographer. Rothstein is recognized as one of America's premier photojournalists. During a career that spanned five decades, he provoked, entertained and informed the Americ ...
,
Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...
, Russell Lee,
Gordon Parks Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and film director, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particula ...
, Carl Mydans,
Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Great Depression, Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administratio ...
and
Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Biography Shahn was bor ...
. By 1937 Vachon started to take photographs himself, and with advice from Ben Shahn, he tried out a Leica camera in and around Washington. His weekend photographs of "everything in the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
valley"were clearly the work of a beginner, but Stryker lent him equipment and encouraged him to keep at it. Arthur Rothstein, who took him along on a photographic assignment to the mountains of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. In October and November 1938, Vachon traveled to
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
on his first extensive solo trip. He photographed agricultural programs on behalf of the FSA's regional office and pursued an extra assignment from the photography project's chief, Roy Stryker: the city of Omaha. Vachon worked extensively in the midwestern and Great Plains states.


Other notable employment

As the Great Depression lessened and American involvement in the War in Europe increased, the government moved FSA photography project to the
Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
, and Vachon's job transferred to that agency as well, where he worked from 1942 to 1943. He later worked as a staff photographer for Standard Oil Company of New Jersey between 1943 and 1944. After serving in the army in 1944–45, in 1947 Vachon joined the
Photo League The Photo League was a cooperative of photographers in New York who banded together around a range of common social and creative causes. Founded in 1936, the League included some of the most noted American photographers of the mid-20th century amon ...
, where he wrote book reviews for ''Photo Notes'' and participated in many exhibitions. Between 1945 and 1947 he photographed
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
and
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
for Standard, and Poland for the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...
. Vachon became a staff photographer for ''
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
'' magazine, where he worked between 1947 and 1949, and for over twenty five years beginning in 1947 at '' Look'' magazine. In 1953 Vachon took the first pictures of
Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
and
Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...
when Monroe cured a sprained ankle near Banff, Canada. With Look closed, he had continued to work as often as he could. He photographed two stories for Vermont Life, a magazine edited at the time by his son Brian and became a freelance photographer. In 1973, he won a Guggenheim fellowship. In 1975, he was a visiting professor at the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...
. In Vachon's later years, he was teaching a class in photography where he kept notebooks on the main points of the day. For December 9th, 1974 he reflects on it earlier assignment he had given his students to emulate the work of FSA photographers. Vachon continued as a freelancer until cancer brought him down. Vachon died of cancer in 1975 in New York at age 60.


Timeline

* 1914: May 19 Born, St. Paul, Minn. * 1934: B.A., St. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minn. * 1936–1937: Assistant messenger, Farm Security Administration, Washington, D.C. * 1937–1940: Junior file clerk and unofficial photographer, Farm Security Administration, Washington, D.C. circa * 1938: Married Millicent (“Penny”) Leeper (died 1960) * 1940–1942: Junior photographer, Farm Security Administration, Washington, D.C. * 1942–1943: Photographer, Office of War Information, Washington, D.C. * 1943–1944: Photographer, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey * 1945: Served in United States Army 1945–1947 Photographer in New Jersey and Venezuela for Jersey Standard * 1946: Photographic assignment, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Poland * 1947–1949: Staff photographer, Life magazine, New York, N.Y. * 1947–1971 Staff photographer, Look magazine, New York, N.Y. 1961 Married Françoise Fourestier * 1971–1975 Freelance photographer, New York, N.Y. * 1975 Visiting lecturer in photography, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minn. 1975, Apr. 20 Died, New York, N.Y.


Gallery

File:Drinking fountain on the county courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina.jpg, Segregated drinking fountain on the Halifax County Courthouse (North Carolina), April 1938. File:No Known Restrictions Ball team at Irwinville Farms, Georgia by John Vachon, 1938 LOC 2106518804.jpg, 1938 Ball team at Irwinville Farms,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
File:John Vachon, Ozark children getting mail from RFD box, Missouri, 1940.jpg, Ozark children getting mail from RFD box, Missouri. May 1940 File:Flour mills-railroad cars-Minneapolis-1939.jpg, September 1939
Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. File:Streetcar-Minneapolis-1939.jpg, Streetcar, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1939 File:Bethlehem Steel Mill, Sparrows Point, Maryland.jpg, September 1940
Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...
Steel Mill, Sparrows Point, Maryland File:John Vachon, Advertising, Woodbine, Iowa, 1940.jpg, 1940 Photograph of advertisements in
Woodbine, Iowa Woodbine is a city in Harrison County, Iowa, United States, along the Boyer River. The population was 1,625 at the time of the 2020 census. History Woodbine was platted 1866 at the time the Chicago and North Western Railway was built through th ...
File:John Vachon Halifax County Virginia 1941.jpeg, Original caption: "Negro Family waiting for ride into town",
Halifax County, Virginia Halifax County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,022. Its county seat is Halifax. History Occupied by varying cultures of indigenous peoples for thousands of years, in histo ...
, March 1941. File:John Vachon, Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, 1942.jpg, Worker at
carbon black Carbon black (subtypes are acetylene black, channel black, furnace black, lamp black and thermal black) is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of coal and coal tar, vegetable matter, or petroleum products, including fuel oil, fluid ...
plant in Sunray, Texas, 1942. File:Lincoln, Nebraska1a34271v.jpg, 1942
Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
File:John Vachon Inoculation.jpg, Doctor administering a typhoid
vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...
at a school in
San Augustine County, Texas San Augustine County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 7,918. Its county seat is San Augustine. History San Augustine County was formed in 1837. It was supposedly named after the Saint, A ...
, April 1943. File:HolmsesVachonA.jpg, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1943. View on Canal Street, with the D. H. Holmes department store fascade covered with large advertisements urging support for the World War II effort. File:Higgins1943Vachonconstruction.jpg, 1943 . Ramp boats under construction at the Higgins shipyards File:Flickr - …trialsanderrors - John Vachon, "Negro boy, near Cincinnati, Ohio", ca. 1943.jpg,
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
boy.
Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...
, 1942 or 1943. File:Higgins1943VachonPTBoats.jpg, June 1943 New Orleans, Louisiana. Patrol Torpedo boats under construction at the Higgins shipyards


Notes


External links


“This Great Nation Will Endure”: Photographs of the Great Depression Special Exhibition Opens September 12th, 2004

Brochure from “This Great Nation Will Endure”

Biography at Illinois State Geological Survey
* *
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives

New Deal Books: Book Review: New Deal Photography: USA 1935-1943, Farm Security Administration, 605pp
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vachon, John 1914 births 1975 deaths American photojournalists Architectural photographers Artists from Saint Paul, Minnesota Photographers from New York City American portrait photographers Catholic University of America alumni People of the United States Office of War Information