Seealso:Documentary Photography; Evans, Walker;
Farm Security Administration; History of Photogra-
phy: Interwar Years; Lange, Dorothea; Lee, Russell;
Office of War Information; Representation and Race;
Rothstein, Arthur; Shahn, Ben; Social Representation;
Stryker, Roy; Works Progress Administration
Biography
Born Jack Ovcharov near Kiev, Russia, 1 August 1914;
emigrated to the United States in 1923; naturalized
1928; adopted the name ‘‘Delano’’ 1940. Educated at
the Settlement Music School, Philadelphia, 1925–1933;
Central High School, Philadelphia, 1928–1932; Pennsyl-
vania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia 1932–1937;
photographer with the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) Project, New York, 1936–1937; freelance photo-
grapher working mainly for the United Fund, New York,
1939–1940; FSA staff photographer 1939–1943; Office of
War Information, 1942–1945; director/producer for edu-
cational film services, 1946–1952; program director for
the education television station in San Juan, 1957–1964,
general manager of TV and radio service of Puerto Rico,
1964–1969. Cresson fellowship, 1936–1937. Awards:
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1946,
1960; UNESCO fellowship to study educational techni-
ques used by television stations in Asia and Europe to see
how they could be applied to Puerto Rico, 1961; National
Endwoment for the Humanities Grant in 1979; Compo-
sers Award Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, 1984. Died
in Puerto Rico, August 1997.
Individual Exhibitions
1938 Anthracite Coal Miners; Pennsylvania Railroad Sta-
tion Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1977 Sonnabend Gallery; New York, New York
1978 Art Students’ League; San Juan Puerto Rico
1984 Daytona Beach Community College; Daytona Beach,
Florida
1986 Before and After: The FSA; Daytona Beach Commu-
nity College, Daytona Beach, Florida (with Arthur
Rothstein and Marion Post Wolcott)
1998 The Art of Jack Delano; traveling exhibition organized
by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and
traveling to Rafael Carrion Pacheco Exhibit Hall, Old
San Juan, Puerto Rico; Smithsonian Institution, Wa-
shington D.C.; El Museo del Barrio, New York, New
York; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois;
Orlando City Hall Public Art Program, Orlando, Flor-
ida; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Selected Group Exhibitions
1955 The Family of Man; Museum of Modern Art, New
York, New York, and world tour
1962 The Bitter Years; Museum of Modern Art, New York,
New York
1976 FSA Photographers; Witkin Gallery, New York, New
York
1977 Documenta 6; Kassel, West Germany
1978 Work; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San
Francisco, California
1979 F.S.A; les Annees Ameres de l’Amerique en Crise,
1935–1942, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France,
and traveled to Galerie Municipale du Chaˆ teau d’Eau,
Toulouse, France
1981 Farbe im Photo; Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Colgone,
Germany
1982 Floods of Light; The Photographers’ Gallery, London,
England
2004 Changes: 50 Years of Transformation in Puerto Rican
Life; Casa de la culture, Chicago, IllinoisSelected Works
Mr. And Mrs. Andrew Lyman, Polish tobacco farmers and
FSA clients, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, September
1940
Pumpkin pies and Thanksgiving dinner at the house of M.
Timothy Levy Crouch, a Rogaine Quaker, Ledyard, Con-
necticut, November 1940
A preacher and his wife, who lived in a converted schoolhouse
with their two grandchildren. Heard County, Georgia,
April 1941
In the home of an FSA borrower, Greene County, Georgia,
June 1941
The family of Russell Tombs moving out of their home, which
was in the area being taken over by the army, Caroline
County, Virginia, June 1941
A farm laborer’s widow living on a Farm Security Adminis-
tration project near Manatı ́, Puerto Rico, 1941
Boy in sugarcane fields bringing lunch to his father. Gua ́nica,
Puerto Rico, 1942Further Reading
Delano, Jack.Photographic Memories: The Autobiography
of Jack Delano. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institu-
tion Press, 1997.
———.Jack Delano, Photographic Memories. Introduction
by Sally Stein. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institu-
tion Press, 1997.
———. Puerto Rico Mio: Four Decades of Change.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.
———.El dia que el Pueblo se despidio de Munoz marin.
Carolina, Puerto Rico: Borinquen Litheographers Cor-
poration for Fundacion Luis Muoz Marin, 1987.
Doud, Richard K. ‘‘Interview with Jack and Irene Delano.’’
June 12, 1965. Smithsonian Archives of American Art
Oral History Collection, Washington, D.C.
Lauria-Perricelli, Antonio. ‘‘Images and Contradictions:
DIVEDCO’s Portrayals of Puerto Rican Life.’’Centro
3, no 1 (Winter 1990–1991): 92–96.
Raper, Arthur F.Tenants of the Almighty, FSA Photo-
graphs by Jack Delano. New York: MacMillan Com-
pany, 1943.
Stein, Stein. ‘‘FSA Color.’’ InModern Photography(New
York) January 1979.
Stryker, Roy, and Nancy Wood.In This Proud Land: Amer-
ica 1935–1943, As Seen in the FSA Photographs. New
York: Galahad Books, 1973.DELANO, JACK