Louise Boyle (February 17, 1910 – December 31, 2005) was an American photographer known for her images documenting the effects of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

on farm workers in the South, especially African Americans.

Life and career

Boyle was born in 1910 in

Grand Forks, North Dakota Grand Forks is a city in and the county seat of Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. The city's population was 59,166 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in North Dakota, third-most populous ...

, one of two daughters of Effie L. Boyle and James E. Boyle. Her family moved to

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, when she was eight, and she would reside there for most of her adult life. She attended Ithaca High school and went on to graduate from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

. Boyle studied photography for a time in New York City and thereafter opened a commercial and portrait photography business in Ithaca. One of her earlier bodies of documentary work is a set of photographs of Pennsylvania coal miners she took for ''

Survey Graphic ''Survey Graphic'' (SG) was a United States magazine launched in 1921. From 1921 to 1932, it was published as a supplement to ''The Survey'' and became a separate publication in 1933. ''SG'' focused on sociological and political research and an ...

''.

Three black children playing with dolls and alphabet blocks at Delta Cooperative

Boyle was a member of a group of young socialists who volunteered to help the

Southern Tenant Farmers Union The Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU), later known as the National Farm Labor Union, the National Agricultural Workers Union, and the Agricultural and Allied Workers Union, was founded as a civil farmer's trade union, union to organize tenant ...

(SFTU). In 1937 she was invited to photograph the life and work of Arkansas members of the SFTU, which had been organized three years earlier by struggling

tenant farmers A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and mana ...

. Her photographs, shot with a Leica camera, document farmers and their families in the fields, at home, and at union meetings. Like the work of her contemporaries

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great ...

and

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...

, her photographs unsparingly show the enormous difficulties faced by Southern farmers in this period, especially African Americans. At the same time, they record the strong communal spirit among Southern labor organizers and farmers. More than forty years later, Boyle returned to rephotograph some of the same people and places in 1982. Boyle served for a time as an editor for the

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, maki ...

. A collection of her photographs is held at the Kheel Center, Cornell University, as part of its SFTU-related holdings. Boyle died in Ithaca on the last day of 2005.

Work

A young Black girl operates a water pump at Delta Cooperative with balloon in her mouth

Boyle often documented African Americans who persevered through the struggles of the Depression. Especially prominent in her work are the ideas of togetherness and shared struggle. Her photos depict how southern African Americans worked together to form a collective future that would benefit everyone. Many of her photos show African Americans picking cotton, working for unions, or just living daily life in their homes.

Publications

*Payne, Elizabeth Anne Payne, and Louise Boyle. "The Lady Was a Sharecropper: Myrtle Lawrence and the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union." ''Southern Cultures'' 4:2 (1998), pp. 5–27.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, Louise 1910 births 2005 deaths Vassar College alumni American documentary photographers Social documentary photographers Southern Tenant Farmers Union people 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American women Ithaca High School (Ithaca, New York) alumni American women photojournalists 20th-century American women photographers