Barker at the Vermont State Fair, Rutland, Vermont, 1941
Dye transfer print
Image size: 10 × 13 inches
Printed from the original film transparency between 1983-86
Title, date, and Light Gallery stamp on verso
September 2, 2024
Jack Delano captures a carnival barker in the midst of taking a big swig from his bottled soda, creating a vivid portrait of the parched vocal chords that would result from a long day on the midway, drumming up business for rattlesnakes and wrestling bears. The scene is rendered in the rich colors of early Kodachrome slide film.
Delano was a Ukrainian immigrant who, upon graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was recruited by Roy Stryker for the Farm Security Administration Photography program. While the FSA photo program is typically associated with depictions of rural poverty and efforts to resettle struggling farmers, the scope of the project expanded over time to include a wider range of American life.
FSA staff photographers were given geographic areas to cover and Delano’s approach was always distinct from his colleagues’ focus on portraiture, making pictures like this one, that portrayed a region’s broader social fabric.
