Center Art Gallery
Spoelhof College Center
3201 Burton Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI  49546
(616) 526-6271
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Picturing Faith:
Religious America in Government Photography, 1935-43

February 3 - March 18, 2006

From February 3 - March 18, the Center Art Gallery presents, Picturing Faith: Religious America in Government Photography, 1935-1943. The exhibition is a unique series of photographs showing the place of religion in American society through the lenses of some of America's most well-known photographers--Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks. It also presents the works of equally talented but lesser known photographers--John Collier, Jr., Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, Jack Delano, and Marjory Collins. Supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, the exhibition includes forty-five black-and-white photographs gathered from the FSA/OWI archives of the Library of Congress. Accompanying the photographs are explanatory materials that set the photographs in their historical, artistic, and religious contexts. Viewers will have an opportunity to consider how religious images were used in the political agenda of the New Deal and how people during this period experienced the divine in their lives.

In 1935, in order to generate support for New Deal reforms, the Historical Division of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) began making a photographic survey of economic struggle and social dislocation in Depression era America. Historical Division director, Roy E. Stryker, also wanted to produce a composite picture of American society, so in the "scripts" he sent out to his photographers, he asked them to include pictures of America's religious life. These "sociologists with cameras" entered the homes and churches of the poor as well as the middle class. They photographed people in prayer, domestic shrines, dinner graces, parishioners going into their churches, revival meetings, and even the gospel trucks of itinerate preachers. While many of the FSA (and later Office of War Information) photographs are familiar, this is the first exhibition of how government photographers represented religion during this critical time in our nation's history.

"Picturing Faith" was curated by Colleen McDannell, Sterling M. McMurrin Professor of Religious Studies and professor of history at the University of Utah, and is based on her recent book, "Picturing Faith: photography and the great depression" from Yale University Press.

Lecture: " 'Truth Value' and Documentary Photography: Reading and Re-reading the FSA"
assistant professor of art history, Lisa VanArragon
Thursday, February 23, 4pm
Science Building 010

Film: "The Grapes of Wrath"
Co-sponsored by the Calvin Film Forum
Friday, March 3, 7:30pm
Bytwerk Theater/De Vos Communication Center

Lecture: "Picturing Faith"
professor of history and Sterling M. McMurrin Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Utah, Colleen McDannell
Co-sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the Mellema Program in Western American Studies
Monday, March 6, 4pm
Gezon Auditorium

The barrier-free Center Art Gallery, located on the lower level of the Spoelhof College Center, is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday. There is no admission charge.

CONTACT
Joel Zwart, Director of Exhibitions
(616) 526-6271
jhz2@calvin.edu
www.calvin.edu/centerartgallery