Sunday, August 31, 2008

Pete Wettach Photography




Pete Wettach

Pete Wettach worked for the Farm Security Administration in Iowa, in the 1930's and 40's. While working Wettach began a photographic series of rural farm images. "Wettach photographed the people of farmiong communities in and around his home state of Iowa during the Great Depression, World War II, and the post-war years." He was a self taught photographer and his work was not published in his lifetime. Author, Lesli Loveless, came across his photographs in a Book titled, Bountiful Harvest.

“Butchering a hog. Carrying eggs. Playing on hay bales. Making cotton mattresses. These are the subjects of A.M. “Pete” Wettach, whose photos captured the poignancy of farm life around Iowa during the Depression and Postwar years. A supervisor with the Farm Security Administration, Wettach took tens of thousands of pictures on the side, and the ones collected here provide an intimate glimpse into the anguish and the charm of the rural Midwest.”—Elizabeth Taylor, “Editor's Choice,” Chicago Tribune

“The photographs in this outstanding book are drawn from thousands of images taken by Wettach over the course of 40 years. . . . The great strength of Wettach's work is the intimacy of his photographs. Journalist and editor Loveless has done a superb job of selecting the photographs and arranging them into separate chapters. Her text captions set the photographs in a distinct time and place.”—Library Journal


Interview: http://www.will.uiuc.edu/am/aftmag/archives/03/03016.htm

Supportive Gallery: www.iowaartscouncil.org/wettach-exhibit.htm

There is not an official web site for the Photographer or the Author of "Bountiful Harvest."






Thursday, August 28, 2008