Creole girls - Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana
| Artist | Ben Shahn (American, 1898–1969) |
|---|---|
| Title | Creole girls - Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana |
| Date | October 1935 |
| Medium | Gelatin silver print |
| Dimensions | Image: 6 1/2 × 8 7/16 in. (16.5 × 21.5 cm) |
| Credit Line | Henry Holmes Smith Archive, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 79.200.XX.7.21 |
| This artwork is currently off display. You may be able to see this artwork by filling out an art viewing room request. | |
A horizontal black-and-white photograph depicts three young, dark-skinned, dark-haired women in dresses sitting next to each other outside. The woman on the right is plucking a stringed instrument; she and another woman have their lips pursed as if singing.
The Farm Security Administration’s vast repository of over 250,000 negatives captured American subcultures, such as the Cajun and Creole communities, which were largely outside of the social mainstram. These descendents of Franch, Spanish, and/or African heritage had maintained a unique mixture of language, food, music, and culture in the southern United States, primarily Louisiana, and the West Indies. [exhibited with 200.XX.1.3, 200.XX.1.261]During the Great Depression, music helped to bring communities together and offered fun, diversion, and emotional support during economic hard times. There was also a growing interest in traditional music, spurred by the efforts of ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who collected thousands of field recordings for the Archive of American Folk Song. "Race records," "hillybilly," and "ethnic" music gained popularity.
By the 1940s swing music heralded a move away from the music of America's rural past to the energized sounds of an industrialized urban society. The Farm Security Adminstration (FSA) photogrpahs in this kiosk illustrate some of this trends.(exhibited with 200.XX.1.20, 200.XX.1.238, 200.XX.1.72, 200.XX>8.15, 200.XX.2.39)
| Publisher | Resettlement Administration |
|---|
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Creole girls - Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=79.200.XX.7.21