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This Land Is Your Land

A A A Comments By Noah W. Bailey Thursday, Aug 31 2006

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It's very fitting that the Amon Carter Museum’s new photography exhibit, a collection of rare color photographs taken between 1939 and 1943, is called Bound for Glory. You see, that's also the title of the autobiography of Woody Guthrie, the ramblin' Dust Bowl singer who gave a voice to millions of Americans disenchanted by the Depression and World War II. The exhibit's images are the work of photographers who worked for the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information, their intended purpose being the documentation of the Depression's effect on America's rural population. Stored and forgotten in the Library of Congress until the '70s, the photographs capture quintessential American images of the era—many of which we've only seen in black and white, as color photography was still too new for widespread use. Stoic families with tons of kids, sharecroppers with well-worn faces carved by years of working in the hot sun, townsfolk saying grace before a barbecue dinner—slap enough of these images together and you've got a John Cougar Mellencamp song waiting to happen. Bound for Glory: America in Color opens Saturday at the Amon Carter Museum, 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd. in Fort Worth. The exhibit runs through November 12. Admission is free. Call 817-738-1933 or visit cartermuseum.org.
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Sept. 2. Continues through Nov. 12