
Dirty Thirties

by Theresa Tahara
Title
Dirty Thirties
Artist
Theresa Tahara
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
My mother grew up during the "Great Depression" and the "Dirty Thirties" in Northern Saskatchewan and remembers having nothing to eat but white fish out of the river. When the depression ended, she never ate fish again. This is my interpretation of these hard times and the model is her granddaughter.
The "Dust Bowl", or the "Dirty Thirties", was a period of severe dust storms ("black blizzards" and "black rollers") causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands in the 1930s, particularly in 1934 and 1936. The phenomenon was caused by severe drought combined with farming methods that did not include crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops, soil terracing and wind-breaking trees to prevent wind erosion. Extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains in the preceding decade had displaced the natural deep-rooted grasses that normally kept the soil in place and trapped moisture even during periods of drought and high winds.
Uploaded
February 14th, 2013
Embed
Share
Similar Subjects
Comments (67)

Linda Lees
Wonderful photograph Theresa! I see the inspiration from the fabulous work of the FSA photographers. L/F

Joe Jake Pratt
This is a wonderful image. So well done, and what a cool story behind it. My grandfather had motion pictures of the black dust rolling in. They lived in Amarillo, Texas. Definite FV!!
Theresa Tahara replied:
Wow, it would be interesting to see those pictures. Thanks for the comment, Jake. ;-)

Ion vincent DAnu
Beautiful, suggestive image! very poetic, very gracious (the young woman)... fav and v. and pin it