Flipping through the book, I immediately opened up to the photograph Pie Town by Russell Lee. on page 285. The first thing that caught my eye was that it was one of the few photographs in the book that was actually in color. The colors were also pretty vivid and pleasing to the eye. There appears to be a family with a mom, a dad, two sisters, and two brothers. The family isn’t wealthy, probably middle class based on their home in the background and their clothing choice. All the females in the photo have short similar hairstyles, wear collared dresses or shirts. The males are wearing overalls or jeans with suspenders, which is what farm workers would wear, so this could be an indicator that they are a working class farmer family.
With a deeper analysis, I can tell the oldest male figure, who looks like the father, is considerably more tan than the rest of the family, which may be caused by working in the farm out in the sun all day. The photograph is called Pie Town, and it was taken in 1940 during the Great Depression or towards the end of it. Pie Town is a town in New Mexico, and many people that live there are farmers. The structure that the family is in is made up of cardboard boxes, making it look like an unstable structure or shack. The family doesn’t look unhappy, but more like they are content and have been able to adapt to the living situation they are in.
