Backed Up Sewer in Negro Slum District, Norfolk, Virginia
Artist
John Vachon
(American, 1914-1975)
CultureAmerican
Date1941
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 1/2 × 9 3/8 in. (19.1 × 23.8 cm)
Overall, Support: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Overall, Support: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank
Object number84.78.63
Not on view
DescriptionThis is one of a series of 132 FSA photographs of Virginia; all are gelatin silver prints.Label TextJohn Vachon American, 1914–1975 Backed Up Sewer in Negro Slum District, Norfolk, Virginia, March 1941 Gelatin silver print (photograph), printed 1984 This photograph was taken at the intersection of Walke and Charlotte Streets in Tidewater Park, a neighborhood only four blocks from here. Identified as a slum area in the 1930s, it was bedeviled by sewer flooding and was among the first neighborhoods scheduled for demolition during the Depression. Arthur Rothstein’s neighboring photograph provides an example of how the FSA used pairs of images to suggest alternatives of “this or that” or “then and now.” Chrysler Museum purchase 84.78.63 ProvenancePurchased prints from Library of Congress (negatives on file at Library of Congress,) 1984.Exhibition History"Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, May 3 - June 16, 1985. Published ReferencesBrooks Johnson. _Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs_. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA. 1985: p. 137.
