12 Million Black Voices: The Golden Age of Documentary Photo Books

Join the Woodbridge Public Library virtually via Zoom February 20 at 7PM as archivist, educator, and photographer Gary D. Saretzky takes us on a journey through 12 Million Black Voices. First published in 1941,12 Million Black Voices, combines best-selling author Richard Wright's poetic history of African Americans with 90 photographs made for a federal agency, the Farm Security Administration (FSA), during the Great Depression. The book was edited by Edwin Rosskam, an FSA editor and photographer who did a series of documentary photography books about American life. The photographs are by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, Ben Shahn, and others who have become renowned. The images depict both rural poverty and urban life in northern ghettos. 

Registration is Required. Please register online or call 732-634-4450. 

Speaker Gary D.Saretzky, archivist, educator, and photographer, worked as an archivist for more than fifty years at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Educational Testing Service, and the Monmouth County Archives.  Saretzky taught the history of photography at Mercer County Community College, 1977-2012, and served as coordinator of the Public History Internship Program for the Rutgers University History Department, 1994-2016.  He has published more than 100 articles and reviews on the history of photography, photographic conservation, and other topics, including “Exceptional Cameraworkers: Early Black Photographers in New Jersey,” published in New Jersey Studies, the online journal. 

Saretzky’s website at http://saretzky.com includes his lecture schedule and other photography-related resources.

Host or Publisher Woodbridge Public Library