1937, Gelatin Silver Print
Towards the last years of the United States' worst economic decline, a flood struck the Ohio River, sending those who lived in the houses of Louisiana, Kentucky, onto the streets. The billboard in the background holds a sense of irony; as the white, all-American family and their dog drive off into happiness and a bright future, a dozen and a half African-Americans are lined up, looking for hope in their new homeless life. The picture declares that Americans have the "World's Highest Standard of Living," and, while this may have held true, millions of people lived in despair and hopelessness as they were thrown out of their jobs and onto the street. Though the picture was taken during the Great Depression to capture the misfortune of the Kentucky Flood, this picture still holds true today. Millions of underrepresented populations live under the overbearing shadow of the rich, educated, straight, white man, including women and intersexual people, people outside the "European-white" umbrella, people who do not identify as straight, and people who are not educated beyond a high school diploma. If we live this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, then why are so many of us still suppressed in society today, just as we were back then?
