Born 1910 in New Jersey, American photographer Marion Post trained as a teacher, and went to work in a small town in Massachusetts. Here she saw the reality of the Depression and the problems of the poor. When the school closed she went to Europe to study with her sister Helen. Helen was studying with Trude Fleischmann, a Viennese photographer. Marion Post showed Fleischmann some of her photographs and was told to stick to photography.
While in Vienna she saw some of the Nazi attacks on the Jewish population and was horrified. Soon she and her sister had to return to America for safety. She went back to teaching but also continued her photography and became involved in the anti-fascist movement.
Post’s photographs for the FSA often explore the political aspects of poverty and deprivation. They also often find humor in the situations she encountered.
In 1978, Post mounted her first solo exhibition in California, and by the 1980s the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art began to collect her photographs. Marion Post’s work is archived at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.
Marion Post died in 1990 at the age of 80. These amazing photos are part of her work that she documented life of the U.S. from 1938 to 1941.
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| Cooperative gas station at Greenbelt, Maryland, September 1938 |
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| A FSA (Farm Security Administration) borrower building a new gate for his yard at Prairie Farms, Montgomery, Alabama, 1939 |
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| A rainy evening in New York City looking west toward Hudson River from University Place, September 1939 |
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| A rainy evening in New York City, looking north from University Place, September 1939 |
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| Beach bathers at Miami Beach, Florida, 1939 |
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| Children on the steps of Mrs. Brown's home. FSA (Farm Security Administration) borrower on Prairie Farms, Montgomery, Alabama, 1939 |
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| Copper mining and sulfuric acid plant, Copperhill, Tennessee, September-October 1939 |
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| Cotton snakes, waste cotton picked from floors of sampling and classing rooms in brokers' offices on Cotton Row, Front Street, Memphis, Tennessee, October 1939 |
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| Dade City tourist camp, Florida, 1939 |
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| Dade City tourist camp, Florida, February 1939 |
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| Domestic servants waiting for a streetcar on their way to work early in the morning, Mitchell Street, Atlanta, Georgia, 1939 |
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| Farmers playing cards on a winter morning, Woodstock, Vermont, 1939 |
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| General town meeting place the park, Lakeland, Florida, 1939 |
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| Home of one of two families who travel and work together all through the South, repairing stalls, stoves, tools, houses, and any other odd jobs, tourist camp near Atlanta, Georgia, 1939 |
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| Horse races, Hialeah Park, Miami, Florida, 1939 |
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| Impoverished farmers sleeping in a white camp room in a warehouse. They often must remain several days before their tobacco is sold. Durham, North Carolina, 1939 |
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| In an old hotel building in Dover, Georgia, 1939 |
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| June in January, Miami Beach, Florida, 1939 |
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| Lunchroom near Belle Glade, Florida, January 1939 |
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| Primary class in new school, Prairie Farms, Montgomery, Alabama, 1939 |
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| Public health doctor giving a tenant family medicine for malaria, near Columbia, South Carolina, 1939 |
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| Sidewalk traffic on main street on the day of tobacco auctions in Mebane, North Carolina, November 1939 |
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| Southern U.S., Mississippi, 1939 |
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| Spectators at the Duke University-North Carolina football game, Durham, North Carolina, October 1939 |
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| Street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, October 1939 |
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| Students during change of classes, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, September 1939 |
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| Students on steps of building between classes at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Orange County, September 1939 |
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| The beach front at Miami Beach, Florida, 1939 |
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| The Horse races at Hialeah Park, Miami, Florida, April 1939 |
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| The ski town of Woodstock, Vermont is generally very crowded with skiers on weekends, 1939 |
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| The ski town of Woodstock, Vermont is generally very crowded with skiers on weekends, 1939 |
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| Tourist court near Plant City, Florida, 1939 |
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| Watching a baseball game, Atlanta, Georgia, 1939 |
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| A country store in Natchez, Mississippi, August 1940 |
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| A cross roads store, bar, juke joint, and gas station in the cotton plantation area, Melrose, Louisiana, June 1940 |
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| A rural scene in Louisiana, 1940 |
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| A Southern Landscape, 1940 |
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| Farmer's Co-op truck full of milk cans driving into town, March 1940 |
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| Farmers near Woodstock, Vermont bring their cans of milk to the crossroads early every morning where it is picked up by the coop farmers' truck and is taken to the city, March 1940 |
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| Harvesting oats in southeastern Georgia, April 1940 |
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| Hired man on a farm near Woodstock, Vermont, usually empties the radiator in his car every evening and refills it again with water in the morning to save the cost of antifreeze, 1940 |
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| Horse and shelter on a farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, February 1940 |
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| Horse and sled of a garbage and rubbish collector Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Mailman making deliveries after a heavy snowfall, Woodstock, Vermont, 1940.. |
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| Mailman making deliveries after a heavy snowfall, Woodstock, Vermont, 1940. |
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| Mailman making deliveries after a heavy snowfall, Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Outside Natchez, Mississippi, August 1940 |
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| Port Gibson, Mississippi, August 1940 |
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| Residential section of North Conway, New Hampshire, February 1940 |
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| Snowy night in the Center of town in Woodstock, Vermont, February 1940 |
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| Storefront with advertising signs in Natchez, Mississippi, August 1940 |
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| Street scene in Port Gibson, Mississippi, August 1940 |
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| Townspeople discussing the severe winter on the street corner in center of town in Woodstock, Vermont, March 1940 |
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| Townspeople of Woodstock, Vermont discussing the severe winter on the street corner in center of town, March 1940 |
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| Townspeople of Woodstock, Vermont, discussing the severe winter on the street corner in center of town, March 1940 |
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| Two men on a street in Woodstock, Vermont, March 1940 |
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| View of the Colonial Cottage Court for tourists outside of Louisville, Kentucky, July 1940 |
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| Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, January 1941 |
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| Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana. Men playing checkers, January 1941 |
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| Winter tourist reading a magazine beside his trailer home at Sarasota trailer park, Sarasota, Florida, January 1941 |
(Photo © Marion Post)
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