Witness to the fifties: the Pittsburgh Photographic Library, 1950-1953

[Stryker maakt aanminnig onderscheid tussen propaganda foto's en foto's voor later = foto's als document]
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We cite from the COVER :
"In 1949, photographer Roy Stryker was Commissioned to document the rebirth of a city through the medium of photography. The planners wanted Stryker to portray Pittsburgh to the nation as a whole "as it really is, not only as the nation's workshop and the heart of heavy industry but as a dynamic city with an implemented plan for the future." Stryker felt that photographs could become a resource of key importance to the improvement not just of a city's public image, but of the very quality of life in Pittsburgh."
"These unforgettable black-and-white photographs of Roy Stryker's Pittsburgh Photographic Library (PPL) capture the city in a state of flux. They reveal a union of opposites—the suited wonderment of the downtown businessman with the easy grace and competence of a shirtless construction worker balanced high over his head; the anonymity and isolation of planned housing with the belief in expansion and renewal. Stryker's photographers also documented Community Chest activities, the planning agency for many of the area's social welfare agencies, including the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House, the Urban League of Pittsburgh, and the Visiting Nurses' Association."
"Today all that remains of the nearly 18,000 photographs from this highly politicized public relations project, sponsored by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development (ACCD) and funded by a variety of corporate sponsors and educational and nonprofit organizations, are fragments scattered throughout the Carnegie Library's Pennsylvania Room."
"Constance Schulz's fascinating essay on the story of the PPL provides a thorough discussion of the background of the Pittsburgh Photographic Library, putting into perspective the Allegheny Conference's purpose for initiating the PPL, Roy Stryker's own vision, the interests and goals of the photographers who worked on the project, and the politics that undermined the full implementation of it. Clarke M. Thomas's accompanying narrative provides a glimpse into the often underrepresented lives of minorities and women in the region's development and offers an eclectic range of facts and bits of the city's history and neighborhood lore. Thomas also offers insight into important political and economic issues of the day, providing a backdrop for the inception, development, and ultimate demise of the PPL. Taken together, these collected photographs and essays document the incredible social upheaval and expansion that occurred in cities across the nation in the 1950s following years of depression and war."
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Facsimile of Table of Contents please click URL.
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