Lee, Russell, 1903-1986

Russell: photographer, Farm Security Administration. Died 1986; Jean: administrator under Paul Vanderbilt, Farm Security Administration; Austin, Texas.

Russell Lee (1903-1986) was a photographer with the Farm Security Administration. Jean Russell, administrator under Paul Vanderbilt, Farm Security Administration of Austin, Tex.

Russell Lee (1903-1986), American photographer, was born in Ottawa, Illinois. He worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression.

Russell Lee was born in Ottawa, Illinois on 21 July 1903. His childhood, although of comfortable middle-class rural American heritage, was marred by tragedy. He became interested in photography in 1931 while married to his first wife, artist Doris Emmrick. During the early 1930s he took photographs of the destitute and homeless, and of the artistic community in Woodstock, New York, where he lived. In 1936, he joined Roy Stryder's Resettlment Administration Project, which became the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1937. The Project's directive was to use photography to create a social awareness of America's rural problems during the depression years. On behalf of the FSA, Lee traveled to Texas, New Mexico, California, and Arizona. He spent some time documenting the living and working conditions of coal miners for the Interior Department between 1946 and 1947, and then took on industrial assignments. In 1965, Lee began a new career as an educator in the Department of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. He died on 28 August 1986 in Texas.

Russell Lee, b. 1903; d. 1986, photographer, Farm Security Administration. Jean Russell, administrator under Paul Vanderbilt, Farm Security Administration of Austin, Texas.

Photographer Russell Lee is perhaps best known for his work with the Farm Security Administration during the Depression (late 1930s to early 1940s), and his images of Post World War II Texas.

Documentary photographer Russell Lee was born in Illinois in 1903.

Trained as a chemical engineer and a painter, he took his first photographs in 1935. He worked for the Farm Security Administration from 1936 to 1942 and remained active in the field of documentary photography until 1977. Lee, who enjoyed a reputation for technical excellence and sensitivity to his subjects, moved to Austin, Texas, in 1947. Although he often traveled as a free-lance photographer and on assignment for magazines, corporations, the federal government, and the University of Texas, Austin remained his home and Texas a major focus of his work until his death in 1986. From 1965 to 1973 he taught photography at the University of Texas.

Documentary photographer Russell Lee was born in Illinois in 1903. Trained as a chemical engineer and a painter, he took his first photographs in 1935. He worked for the Farm Security Administration from 1936 to 1942 and remained active in the field of documentary photography until 1977.

Lee, who enjoyed a reputation for technical excellence and sensitivity to his subjects, moved to Austin, Texas, in 1947. Although he often traveled as a free-lance photographer and on assignment for magazines, corporations, the federal government, and the University of Texas, Austin remained his home and Texas a major focus of his work until his death in 1986. From 1965 to 1973 he taught photography at the University of Texas.

Documentary photographer Russell Lee was born in Illinois in 1903. Trained as a chemical engineer and a painter, he took his first photographs in 1935. He worked for the Farm Security Administration from 1936 to 1942 and remained active in the field of documentary photography until 1977. Lee, who enjoyed a reputation for technical excellence and sensitivity to his subjects, moved to Austin, Texas, in 1947. Although he often traveled as a free-lance photographer and on assignment for magazines, corporations, the federal government, and the University of Texas, Austin remained his home and Texas a major focus of his work until his death in 1986. From 1965 to 1973 he taught photography at the University of Texas.

Russell Lee was born in Ottawa, Illinois on 21 July 1903. His childhood, although of comfortable middle-class rural American heritage, was marred by tragedy. His parents were divorced in 1908, when Lee was five, and his mother was killed in an accident in 1913. Lee was then passed between various relatives and guardians until he returned to Ottawa to be raised by family friends. He became interested in photography in 1931 while married to his first wife, artist Doris Emmrick. She introduced him to art, which he then took up seriously. Dissatisfied with his artistic accomplishments, however, Lee bought himself a camera and began taking pictures. During the early 1930s he took photographs of the destitute and homeless, and of the artistic community in Woodstock, New York, where he lived.

Lee pioneered the "photo essay" approach to photography, producing photographic documentaries. In 1936, he joined Roy Stryker's Resettlement Administration Project, which became the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1937. The Project's directive was to use photography to create a social awareness of America's rural problems during the depression years. During this time he traveled away from home for up to nine months at a time, photographing and documenting rural America. He and Doris Emmrick were amicably divorced, and Lee later married Jean Smith, who became his partner.

On behalf of the FSA, Lee traveled to Texas, New Mexico, California, and Arizona. His most famous portrayals are of people pursuing their everyday lives in San Augustine, Texas (1939) and Pie Town, New Mexico (1940). He was a pioneer in the use of flash for indoor photography, capturing indoor images as well as the more usual outdoor scenes.

During World War II, Lee photographed airstrips for the U.S. Air Transport Command in the Far East, but did not remain in the service once the war ended. He spent some time documenting the living and working conditions of coal miners for the Interior Department between 1946 and 1947, and then took on industrial assignments. In 1965, Lee began a new career as an educator in the Department of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. He died on 28 August 1986 in Texas.

Russell Lee was born on July 21, 1903, in Ottawa, Illinois. His parents' divorce, the death of his mother, and supervision by three successive guardians created an unsettled childhood for Lee. In 1917 he was sent to Culver Military Academy (CMA), which provided some stability in his life. He attended CMA until 1921, then enrolled at Lehigh University, in Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1925 with a degree in chemical engineering and joined the Certainteed Products Company in Marseilles, Illinois.

In 1927 he married painter Doris Emrick. The following year, Lee was transferred to Kansas City, where he became so bored with his job he resigned to pursue painting. After moving to San Francisco in 1929, the Lees resettled a year later in an artists colony in Woodstock, New York. Lee subsequently became increasingly frustrated with his limitations as a painter. In 1935, at the suggestion of a friend, he bought his first camera and his enthusiasm for photography quickly grew. He explored the technical aspects of the craft, experimenting with developing chemicals, exposure speeds, and flash photography techniques.

Lee began taking documentary photographs in Woodstock in 1935 and went to Pennsylvania to photograph bootleg coal miners. The winter of 1935 found him in New York City documenting the poor and their living conditions. Shortly after, he acquired an agent and began selling his work to magazines. In 1936, Lee joined the photographic staff of the Resettlement Administration, later renamed the Farm Security Administration (FSA), where he worked under the creative supervision of Roy Stryker, director of photographic projects. His colleagues included Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Walker Evans, and Carl Mydans. During his FSA years, Lee traveled throughout the United States, documenting life in rural and urban communities. He developed a flash technique that enabled him to take innovative and candid interior photographs. He also specialized in taking pictures in series, most notably those shot in Pie Town, New Mexico, and San Augustine, Texas.

The long periods away from his wife while working for the FSA contributed to their divorce in 1938. On assignment in New Orleans the same year, he met Jean Smith, a Dallas journalist. They began working together and eventually married.

In 1943, Lee received a captain's commission in the Air Transport Command (ATC). He traveled military transport routes taking aerial photographs, visiting the West Indies, North Africa, India, and China. Lee was promoted to major and received the Air Medal.

About a year after leaving the ATC, in 1946, Lee was hired by the Department of the Interior's Coal Mines Administration to take photographs for a major report on health and safety conditions in bituminous coal mines.

The Lees moved to Austin, Texas, in 1947. At the request of his former FSA chief, Roy Stryker, Lee worked for Standard Oil of New Jersey, documenting the oil industry at home and overseas. Lee continued with industrial photography projects throughout the 1950's, visiting Saudi Arabia and Europe. He contributed to Fortune magazine and was an associate staff member of the prestigious Magnum photographic cooperative.

Between 1949 and 1962, Lee conducted a photographic workshop at the University of Missouri. In 1950, Lee worked with The University of Texas on a study of Spanish-speaking people in Texas. He contributed to the Texas Observer and between 1952 and 1957 covered Ralph Yarborough's election campaigns. His coverage of a 1956 Texas primary campaign appeared in The New York Times . The September, 1961, issue of Texas Quarterly published 150 of some 4,000 photographs taken during a two-and-a-half month visit to Italy.

In 1965, The University of Texas at Austin presented an exhibition of Lee's photographs and he was invited to join the university's art faculty as an instructor in photography. He taught until his retirement in 1973. Russell Lee died on August 28, 1986.

Related Readings: Hurley, F. Jack. Russell Lee: Photographer . Dobbs Ferry: Morgan and Morgan, 1978, and ------------ Just Before the War: Urban America as seen by Photographers of the Farm Security Administration . New York: October House, 1968.