In the archives of the Library of Congres, alongside the iconic “Great Depression” photos, thousands of killed, unpublished photographs reside.
Roy Stryker, the director of the FSA’s documentary program, was responsible for hiring photographers such as Dorothea LangeArthur Rothstein, Gordon Parks, and Walker Evans and forwarding them across the U.S.A to capture “misery” that had overtaken the country during the depression.

Fennel Corbin who is being resettled on new land, Virginia Photo Credit

Negro boy selling pecans by road, near Alma, Georgia Photo Credit

Setting out rows of celery, Sanford, Florida
Photo Credit

Part of migrant agricultural worker’s family near Belle Glade, Florida Photo Credit

An employee of the grapefruit canning plant at Winter Haven, Florida Photo Credit

Sharecropper’s wife and children, Arkansas Photo Credit

Children of sharecropper, North Carolina Photo Credit

Children at Greenbelt, Maryland Photo Credit
Stryker was quite educated and informed his photographers, providing them with extensive research for each assignment. Stryker wanted to get the best out of his employees, and one would say he was a bit of a dictatorial and tyrannical editor.
Everytime photographers returned from the assignment with the negatives, Stryker and his assistants were painstakingly “reviewing” the photos. Images that didn’t meet the criteria were destined to meet the hole puncher. The weirdest part is that the editor didn’t have any explicit criteria to determine which photos will be published and which will be killed.So we can assume how difficult it was to satisfy his standards as he was ruthlessly “killing” all of the photographs that were not to his liking.
We have to agree on one, because of his sharp eye there are images that fully epitomize The Great Depression, such as the Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother.”

Red House, West Virginia Photo Credit

Red House, West Virginia Photo Credit

Medicine show, Huntingdon, Tennessee Photo Credit

Residents of Camden, Tennessee Photo Credit

Amite City, Louisiana Photo Credit

Resident at Amite City, Louisiana Photo Credit

Resident at Amite City, Louisiana Photo Credit

Truck repair, Plain City, Ohio Photo Credit

Newsboys, Jackson, Ohio
Photo Credit
While some of the photographs were merely punctured once around the corner, others were completely damaged, compulsively punctured several times making them permanently unsuitable for publication.
So, it’s obvious that Stryker was not a favorite among the photographers. They complained and protested constantly against “The photo killer” until in 1939 Stryker finally relented.

Kids, Jackson, Ohio Photo Credit

Rehabilitation client, Garrett County, Maryland Photo Credit

Garrett County, Maryland, a surveyor Photo Credit

Steelworker’s son, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Photo Credit

Steelworker’s son, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Photo Credit

Wife of steelworker, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Photo Credit

Union headquarters, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Photo Credit

Cutting hay, Windsor County, Vermont Photo Credit

Steelworkers, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania Photo Credit

Cutting hay, Windsor County, Vermont Photo Credit

Sideshow, State Fair, Rutland, Vermont Photo Credit

Picking stringbeans near Cambridge, Maryland Photo Credit

Crowds at races, Indianapolis, Indiana Photo Credit

Crowds at races, Indianapolis, Indiana Photo Credit

Postmaster at Old Rag, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia Photo Credit