©Ben Shahn

 

Ben Shahn (1898-1969)

Ben Shahn was born in Kaunus, Lithuania in 1898 and in 1906 he emigrated to New York with his family. He worked as a lithographers’ apprentice and 1917 to 1921 attended both New York University and the National Academy of Design.

For several years Shahn created works with lithography and painting until 1933 he began working as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration. For the next five years of his life he would travel through the Depression Era America taking masterful images of impoverished rural areas and their inhabitants.

While photography may not have been his preferred medium to create works of art his photography has spoken to many.