Marion Post Wolcott

Marion Post Wolcott’s moving Mother and Widow and Relatives Weeping at Grave of Deceased at Memorial Meeting Near Jackson, Kentucky, Breathitt County, is a raw, candid glimpse into the pain of a family dealing with the death of a loved one at the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II.  The photograph is composed in a seemingly quick and haphazard fashion that leads the viewer to feel that the mourners are unaware of the photographer. 

Marion Post Wolcott was the sole female photographer at the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin at the time she was hired by the Farm Security Administration to photograph in the Northeastern and Southern United States.  Wolcott always advocated for the underprivileged, acting from a personal philosophy formed while studying photography in Europe, where she witnessed discrimination against Jewish friends.  During the Great Depression, Wolcott turned to her camera to illustrating economic and racial inequalities. She employed contrast as a metaphor for economic disparities that fell along racial lines.  The boys in Swimming in fountain across from Union Station, Washington, D.C., are caught in graceful and elegant poses, mimicking the statues in the background.