You Have Seen Their Faces is a 1937 book by novelist Erskine Caldwell and photographer Margaret Bourke-White, first published by Viking Press. A paperback version by Modern Age Books was released a few years later. The book depicts poverty and economic hardship in the American South during the Great Depression, highlighting the plight of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and chain gangs in that region. The book was a commercial success.[1]
Development
Photographer Margaret Bourke-White was initially known for her commercial work focusing on architectural and industrial photography for corporate clients. Her interest in documentary photography began in the mid 1930s when she began focusing less on industry and more on people, first with a photo essay of the Dust Bowl for Fortune in 1934. She began working for Life as a photographer in late 1936.[2]
The book's title is reminiscent of Can You Hear Their Voices?, a 1931 play by Hallie Flanagan and Margaret Ellen Clifford, based on the short story "Can You Make Out Their Voices" by Whittaker Chambers.[3] According to writer Iris Noble, the idea for naming the book You Have Seen Their Faces belonged to novelist Erskine Caldwell, Bourke-White's collaborator.[4]
Contents
The book documents poverty in the American South. Bourke-White captured the photos, while Caldwell wrote the text. Together, they both wrote captions. Their travels depicted in the book took them through almost 50 towns in eight states: Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida.[5] A 1975 reprint notes a disclaimer at the beginning of the book that says the captions are "intended to express the authors’ own conceptions of the sentiments of the individuals portrayed; they do not pretend to reproduce the actual sentiments of these persons."[6] An updated introduction by Caldwell dated 1974 also appears in the 1975 edition.[7] An afterward by Bourke-White titled "Notes on photographs", explains the technical requirements for the photography side of the project, including lighting and the use of five different cameras, and the need to get permission for their shoots. This was a problem shooting the chain gang scenes in Hood's Chapel, Georgia, as the guard threatened to shoot them if they took photos. Eventually, they were able to get an official letter of permission, but when they returned and presented it to the guard, he revealed he was illiterate.[8]
Critical reception
In a positive review of the book in 1940, American sociologist and anthropologist Frank H. Hankins called it "a telling account of the South's poor rural population", and called the photos "remarkably good" and the captions "interesting and moving case histories".[9] Reflecting on the book in 2009, novelist Caleb Crain of The New Yorker gave the book a negative review, criticizing Bourke-White's methods as "sentimental and grotesque" and Caldwell's captions as "contrived".[10]
Influence
This book inspired James Agee to write Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941).[11]
References
- ^ Ophir, Ella Zohar (Summer 2007). "Romantic Reverence and Modernist Representation: Vision, Power, and the Shattered Form: Of Let Us 'Now Praise Famous Men'". Twentieth Century Literature. 53 (2): 125-152. (subscription required).
- ^ Hostetler, Lisa (1999). "Biographies". In Ellen Handy and Constance Sullivan (ed). Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection. Little, Brown and Company. International Center of Photography. p. 209. ISBN 9780821226254. OCLC 44651499.
- ^ Sarah Ehlers (2019). Left of Poetry: Depression America and the Formation of Modern Poetics. University of North Carolina Press. p. 77. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
- ^ Noble, Iris (1973). Cameras and Courage: Margaret Bourke-White. J. Messner. pp. 80-82, 100-101. ISBN 9780671325770. OCLC 516261.
- ^ Caldwell & Bourke-White (1975)[1937], pp. 15-185.
- ^ Caldwell & Bourke-White (1975)[1937], front matter.
- ^ Caldwell & Bourke-White (1975)[1937], introduction.
- ^ Caldwell & Bourke-White (1975)[1937], back matter.
- ^ Hankins, Frank H. (October 1940). "Review". American Sociological Review. 5 (5): 839. (subscription required).
- ^ Crain, Caleb (September 21, 2009). "It Happened One Decade". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 22, 2009.
- ^ Theroux, Paul (2015). Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads. London, UK: Hamish Hamilton. pp. 78–79. ISBN 9780241146729.
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica
- University of Virginia – photos by Margaret Bourke-White