A previous dearth portrayed
"The Bitter Years" exhibition leaves a few things to be desired, Michael Reinertz finds
Some of the world-famous photographs that are on show in Dudelange Photo: Lex Kleren
The Great Depression left deep scars on a generation of Americans. The devastating period is the subject of “The Bitter Years”, an astonishing collection of over 250,000 prints and negatives capturing images from taken between 1935 and 1943.
One of the first uses of photography as a historical source, the collection was born from a project carried out by the photography section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA).
Spearheaded by Roy Stryker, an economist from Columbia University, the project gathered a team of renowned photographers - including, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, Russell Lee and Arthur Rothstein - to document the rural exodus of countless migrant workers in California.
The photos have a direct link to Luxembourg, because in 1962, they were the subject of the final exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, a world-famous photographer and curator born in Bivange.
Steichen’s rapid rise in the US had made him head of photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. After this death, the exhibition made its way to Dudelange, where it has been on show for years at the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA).
Surrounded by industrial decay and poisonous-looking algae growing in concrete basins on either side of the museum, Dudelange’s Waassertuerm gallery is a fitting backdrop for the photography that is both bleak and of high artistic quality.
Steichen sought to make a new generation aware of the hardship of the 30s and 40s, while at the same time upholding the collection as a testament to the documentary art of photography, pushing for a permanent photographic organisation for the continuing record of American history.
As they hang on the walls of the Waassertuerm gallery, one can see how—thanks to the meticulous restoration work of Silvia Berselli and Sandra Petrillo—the CNA has managed to preserve the lustre of the original silver gelatine prints first created for the exhibition at the MoMA in 1962.
For the sake of conservation—and due to the limited space in the gallery—the collection is on constant rotation. Currently, visitors can find a small collection organized into themes such as “Field Workers,” Schools,” Houses,” Tents,” Sharecroppers” and “Jobless.”
While the photographs are impressively preserved and displayed alongside the poignant, and at times poetic, testimonials of Dorothea Lange’s subjects, the exhibition leaves a few things to be desired.
Culture critic Michael Reinertz Photo: Guy Wolff
While the photographs are impressively preserved and displayed alongside the poignant, and at times poetic, testimonials of Dorothea Lange’s subjects, the exhibition leaves a few things to be desired.
The distinctly American ethos of the exhibition feels displaced in the darkened cistern of the gallery. What’s more, the limited space fails to represent the ambitious scale of the FSA project which made it such a monumental milestone for photography as a documentary art form.
For photography lovers, “The Bitter Years”, of course is still a must-see, in a venue that is otherwise breath-taking. Open every Wednesday to Sunday from 1200 to 1800 hrs.
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