The art of the reject pile
A new book gives life to Depression-era negatives that were deemed unworthy of publishing


Eighteen-year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California migrant. 1937.
(Dorothea Lange/Library of Congress)At the helm of this massive project, which lasted from 1935 to 1944, was Roy E. Stryker, an economist and photographer. Stryker's task was monumental — hir

Mr. Tronson, farmer near Wheelock, North Dakota. 1937.
(Russell Lee/Library of Congress)

Homesteader at Roanoke Farms, North Carolina. 1938.
(John Vachon/Library of Congress)In his new book, Ground: A Reprise of Photographs from the Farm Security Administration (Daylight Books), McDowell resurrects the FSA's killed negatives, tran

Untitled. Alabama. 1936.
(Walker Evans/Library of Congress)

Levee workers, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. 1935.
(Ben Shahn/Library of Congress)

Getting fields ready for spring planting, North Carolina. 1936.
(Carl Mydans/Library of Congress)

Lumber mill worker, Lowell, Vermont. 1937.
(Arthur Rothstein/Library of Congress)

Untitled. Kansas. 1938.
(John Vachon/Library of Congress)

Five-bedroom house, Meridian (Magnolia) Homesteads, Mississippi. 1935.
(Arthur Rothstein/Library of Congress)

Mud bath, Prince George's County, Maryland. 1935.
(Carl Mydans/Library of Congress)

Scioto farms, Ohio. 1938.
(Arthur Rothstein/Library of Congress)

Sharecropper and dog, North Carolina. 1938.
(John Vachon/Library of Congress)**For more about Ground, check Daylight Books.**