He looks so tired and tattered, and deep in thought, very good once again with the coloring process. tigs=^..^=

Such hardships this man has seen, I feel so sorry for those folks. Glad you've shown us what others had to go through. We can only imagine.

These subdued tones really make an impression. Curious about the photographers who capture these scenes, they really tell a story. Excellent work as always.

Rob, I see by both his worn-out clothes and his stance, that this photograph is taken in a for this farmer difficult time. I agree with Vicki that photographs of this series sure tell us a (touching) story. The well chosen and dosed tones in your colorization process makes the hardship that this farmer has to deal with even more expressible.
Excellent work again!

Thought provoking - makes one count our own blessings.
Perfectly and sympathetically done Rob

American farmers were hit particularly hard by the economic downturn of the 1930s. Not only did they have to deal with the Great Depression and plummeting prices for their crops, they had to pay off debt accumulated over many years and many, if not most, faced serious problems of soil erosion, worn out land, drought and floods. The New Deal had been attempting to assist farmers with a variety of programs from the outset: the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Civilian Conservation Corps, the Army Corps of Engineers' flood control works, and the Soil Erosion Service under the National Industrial Recovery Act. FDR created the Resettlement Administration (RA) to resettle "destitute or low-income families from rural and urban areas"; administer projects addressing "soil erosion, stream pollution, seacoast erosion, reforestation, forestation, and flood control"; and to make loans to "to finance, in whole or in part, the purchase of farm lands and necessary equipment by farmers, farm tenants, croppers or farm laborers." The RA engaged in a variety of activities during its brief two-year existence. One was financial aid, with emergency loans and grants for farm families in dire straits and debt reduction for others. Another group of RA programs dealt with conservation work: planting trees on 87,000 acres; creating 1,900 miles of firebreaks; improving 261 miles of streams; educating farmers in best practices for land-use; and purchasing 9 million acres of land, "unsuitable for crop cultivation," for "forestry, grazing, wildlife conservation, and recreation" (essentially, national park land). A third type of activity was aimed at building physical and social infrastructure in the countryside: over 500 vehicle, horse, and pedestrian bridges; 65 blacksmith shops; 1,800 miles of telephone lines, and enhanced medical and dental services. With all that the RA was created to even attempt to fix, the problems of rural Americans were obviously overwhelming... what I believe the posture and condition of this gentleman is projecting for us, the viewers. The publication date of this photo is 1935... sometime in that year. The Resettlement Administration was created on May 1, 1935, so this man may have been feeling he was at the end of his tether when help actually arrived.

-Nik

Such hardship back then and he's deep in thought, another fantastic work again