Collection Information

Size: Sound recordings: 1 sound tape reel (1 hour 15 min.) ; 7 in.

Transcript: 25 p.

Summary: An interview of Theodor Jung conducted 1965 Jan. 19, by Richard Doud, for the Archives of American Art. Jung speaks of his first camera and the development of his interest in photography; subject matter that interested him early; poverty and other social problems that moved him; his European travels; starting out with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration as a draftsman and later as a photographer; working with the Farm Security Administration (FSA) photography project; how work was assigned in the FSA; subjects' responses to the photographers; propagandistic aspects of the project; public reaction to the project; his post-FSA career; and uses for the photographs.

Biographical/Historical Note

Theodor Jung (1906-1996) was a photographer from Palo Alto, Calif. Worked on Farm Security Administration documenting Depression-era America.

Provenance

This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Transcript: microfilm reel 3697 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.

Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Theodor Jung, 1965 Jan. 19. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.