Paul S. Taylor and the origins of documentary photography in California, 1927–1934

Abstract

Contrary to most of what has been written on the subject, the documentary tradition in California photography did not spring entirely from the economic and psychological blight of the Great Depression. There were experimenters and pioneers who, on their own initiative, without government or institutional backing, in response to specific personal and professional commitments, during the years between 1900 and 1930, compiled photographic records with a social purpose; facts which not only showed how things were but, inevitably, how things should be. Among the first to sense this persuasive power was Paul S. Taylor, a young economist at the University of California. His pictures unravelled a chapter in American immigration history that had long been swamped by clichés and ethnocentric distortions. They also demonstrated a radically broadened view of scholarly research. Unfortunately, these images have remained largely unpublished. As a result, Taylor has been pigeonholed as a man of words and statistics, and as “husband of Dorothea Lange”, the noted Farm Security Administration photographer. Not until a half-century after he first took a camera into the field did the full nature and significance of Paul Taylor's work finally come into focus¹.