CLYDE KELLER PHOR Has a new store on the European DaWanda

Thursday, March 26, 2015




FLOYD BROWN FAMILY
Vintage 1973 Documentary Photo
Washington County, Oregon


In this vintage documentary image I was focusing on poverty as it could be found throughout Washington County, Oregon. The subject is of Floyd Brown and his family posed inside their house in a remote rural backwoods farming area. The entire family included the two adult figures and their grandson. This image was featured in my 16mm film entitled "Portraits of Poverty" which helped to bring into focus the effects of economics and environment as it had left its impression on the faces of the poor. 

http://www.clydekeller.com/FLOYD-BROWN-FAMILY-Portrait-of-Poverty-Clyde-Keller-photo-1974_p_429.html

Wednesday, March 11, 2015




Cucumbers. Acres of cucumbers in the rich turd brown fields of Washington County, Oregon  picked by migrant farm laborers.  Chicanos mostly, who were recruited from Texas to live in smallish plywood shacks built by such landowners as Ron Tankersley, who owned some of the most notorious camps with the worst conditions. It was on his land that many of my photos were taken showing the actual conditions the workers and family members lived in. He would recruit them with false advertising showing them photos of pretty "modern-style houses"-- and when they'd arrive in Oregon they found plywood shacks-- a typical bait and switch tactic.  In an interview and portrait session, Ron Tankersley,  told me, the pickers love to "camp" here, it's like a "vacation" for them.  In reality, families, sometimes over a dozen children, all lived together in square, a 20x20 foot one room plywood shacks with inadequate water, heat, and "moldy" damaged mattresses.  Later, Ron served jail time, according to an article published on May 6, 1989 in the Eugene Register Guard for using illegal contractors.


I was there to take pictures of them-- and here in the Land of Opportunity they were all seemingly proud. But these scenes resembled another America to me, going back in time to the 1930s or before. Bathrooms, water and cooking facilities were outside the campground shacks.--  These photos may be be viewed at my website.

http://www.clydekeller.com/Migrant-Farm-Labor-Photography_c_26.html