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FSA Photo by Russell Lee via the Library of Congress
The Farm Security Administration photograph from the Library of Congress shows Faro and Doris Caudill, homesteaders, in Pie Town, New Mexico in October, 1940.
By MITCH TRAPHAGEN
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 For those of us who didn’t live through it, the Great Depression is history in black and white. What we have seen of it are stark black and white photographs of hardy, determined people seeking out better lives. Not all of it, however, is monochromatic. While black and white photographs are striking, and even appropriate in starkness, color adds life and depth to the era. Thanks to the Library of Congress, it is possible for those of us under the age of 70 to see that life and to revel in the color of the era.
Kodak introduced Kodachrome film for 35mm cameras in 1938. That film remained the standard for color and durability until production ceased last year. As digital cameras have gone mainstream, fewer people are interested in using slide film. The last roll of Kodachrome ever manufactured was traced to Steve McCurry, a photographer for National Geographic. Last month that 36-frame roll of slide film was processed at the world’s last remaining Kodak-certified processing lab, Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas. Certainly there are rolls of the film still stored in refrigerators and desk drawers around the world, but Dwayne’s Photo has announced they will cease Kodochrome processing in December. It is the end of an era for a film that changed how life in the 20th Century will be remembered. To most photographers, myself included, despite the amazing advances of digital photography, nothing brings still life to life like Kodachrome. As a friend (OK, my sister Pam) said, witnessing the end of Kodachrome is a bit like watching Rembrandt die. Kodachrome is photographic art.
In 1938, while still in the grip of the Great Depression, much of the world was focused on where the next meal would come from rather than on spending money for the remarkable advancement that Kodak introduced. The Farm Security Administration, however, had the funds and by 1940, they were buying Kodachrome to record what is now history. By that time the Depression was winding down, though it didn’t release its grip evenly. The photographs from that era by FSA photographers (now available online from the Library of Congress) reveal vivid, colorful images of people living in hard times. They show a simple life of determination that even today, during the Great Recession, has no parallel. The Kodachrome film literally brings the people and the scenery to life.
The Library of Congress website isn’t the easiest to navigate. From the following link to search results, the FSA photographs are somewhat cumbersome to view but the reward is well worth the effort. These photographs bring color to a previously monochromatic history. The photographs bring to life the people that not only endured hardship beyond our imagination but overcame it with amazing success. The Great Depression was not in black and white. The color of real life from that time is not only stunning, it is inspirational.
To view the FSA photographs, visit the Library of Congress at www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?sp=1&co=fsac&st=grid.
And now let’s fast-forward from the tail end of the Depression to a challenge of our modern times. Yes, there are economic parallels to today; including joblessness and foreclosures — all serious matters. But today, thanks to the enormous reach of the web, we also have the challenge of understanding what “Morons” are trying to say. Never before in history have morons had the platform to speak as they have now. I have a number of teenage “friends” on Facebook and like most teenagers they are sometimes foolish or... morons, if you will. I frequently have no idea what they are saying (which, I guess, makes me a moron, too).
If the web is responsible for giving “Morons” a platform, it should also be credited with giving the rest of us the tools we need to communicate with them. Now, thanks to the web’s Dialectizer, I can converse like a “Moron”, too. Take, for example, the following sample paragraph:
The Internet gives all of us the opportunity to be something we are not. Do you want to be a Superhero? You can do it. Do you want to be an investment banker or the CEO of a shadowy corporation? The Internet gives you the platform. Behind the privacy of your keyboard, you can be anything you want to be. It’s up to you to convince others of your amazing accomplishments in life.
Now, let’s run that through the Dialectizer using the Moron Translation:
De Innernet gibes all of us de opportuty t’ be somedigg webuh are not. Want t’ be a Supehheho, duh...uh...? You can do it. Lee me lone! Want t’ be an inbestmin bankeh or de CEO of a shadowy corporashun, duh...uh...? De Innernet gibes you de platf’m. Behind de pribacy of your keyboard, uh uh uh uh, you can be anydigg you want t’ be. It’s up t’ you t’ conbiss odehs of your amazigg acc’plishmins in life.
In addition to giving our advanced society the opportunity to sound like a “Moron”, it can also be considered a platform for learning. Eventually, after using the Dialectizer enough, I may reach the lofty intellectual level in which I can actually understand what the heck all that means. Life is, after all, a learning experience.
In addition to the Moron translation, the Dialectizer also provides the ability to translate your words into other popular, but difficult to grasp, languages such as Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Pig Latin and Hacker.
You no longer have to feel alienated from your “Moron” friends on Facebook. If you can’t truly be a moron, thanks to the Dialectizer, you can at least sound like one. Try it out for yourself at www.rinkworks.com/dialect
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