Lee has also been subjected to criticism. Maren
Stange, for example, has argued that the FSA doc-
umentary style, which Lee fundamentally contrib-
uted to codify, ultimately suppressed the radical
potential of the photographed subjects, testifying
‘‘both to the existence of painful social facts and to
the reformers’ special expertise in ameliorating
them, thus reassuring a liberal middle class that
social oversight was both its duty and its right.’’
During his tenure with the FSA, Lee divorced from
his first wife and in 1939 married Dallas journalist
Jean Smith. The couple soon started to work
together and Jean Lee often followed her husband
in his travels, writing captions and short essays for
his photographs.
During the Second World War, Lee, who had left
the FSA in 1942, worked for the Overseas Technical
Unit of the Air Transport Command (ATC). The
new unit’s task was to photograph the routes and
the airfields flown by the ATC, thus providing Amer-
icanpilots withimagesofthe often unknown airspace
in which they would fly. In 1944, Lee was promoted
to major and the following year he received the Air
Medal for his contribution to the unit.
At the end of the war, Lee returned to his life-long
project of illustrating American social realities. In
1946, the Department of the Interior commissioned
Lee to document the health, housing, and safety
conditions of coal miners throughout the United
States. Lee’s photographs, which amounted to
more than 4,000, were part of a survey promoted by
the Department of the Interior and the United Mine
Workers. They portrayed the lives of coal miners
showing their daily activities, the interiors and exter-
iors of the mines, and their accommodations. Many
of these photographs were published in 1947 in the
final report of the survey,A Medical Survey of the
Bituminous Coal Industry, which contributed to
important changes in the work and health regula-
tions of the mining industry. That same year, Lee,
together with many of his former FSA colleagues,
was again under the direction of Roy Stryker work-
ing for Standard Oil New Jersey (SONJ) in an effort
to improve the corporation’s public image. After
SONJ, Lee continued to work in the field of indus-
trial photography throughout the 1950s and was
hired by several important companies such as Ara-
bian-American Oil Company (Aramco) and Jones
andLaughlinSteel. Paralleltothis bodyofindustrial
photographs, Lee collaborated with Texan political
and cultural institutions to record post-war Texas
life and its different social conditions. Lee’s subjects
were extremely varied and ranged from the living
conditions of Spanish-speaking population to state
mental institutions, from portraits of Texan politi-
cianstothoseofliteraryauthors.ThoughLee’srepu-
tation is closely connected to the American soil, in
1960,hewasinItalyfortwoandahalfmonthstaking
over 4,000 photographs for a special issue ofTexas
Quarterlyon that country. Throughout the 1950s
and 1960s, Lee’s work appeared inFortune,The
New York Times Magazine, Magnum, and The
Texas Observer.
After a retrospective exhibition organized by the
University of Texas at Austin in 1965, Lee accepted
a position as the first photography instructor at the
University of Texas. Teaching became the focus of
Lee’s career until his retirement in 1973. He died in
Austin on August 28, 1985.
LucaProno
Seealso:Delano, Jack; Documentary Photography;
Evans, Walker; Farm Security Administration; His-
tory of Photography: Interwar Years; Industrial Pho-
tography; Lange, Dorothea; Rothstein, Arthur;
Shahn, Ben; Stryker, RoyBiography
Born in Ottawa, Illinois, 21 July, 1903. Died in Austin,
Texas, on August 28, 1985. Attended Culver Military
Academy in Indiana, and Leigh University in Penn-
sylvania, but self-educated in photography. Joined the
photographic team of the Resettlement Administration
(RA)/Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1936 for
six years. Worked for the Overseas Technical Unit of
the Air Transport Command (ATC) during World
War II. After the war he was hired by state depart-
ments and important private corporations such as
Standard Oil New Jersey (SONJ), the Arabian-Amer-
ican Oil Company (Aramco), and Jones and Laughlin
Steel. Instructor of photography at The University
of Texas, 1965–1973. Died in Austin, Texas, 28
August 1985.Exhibitions
1938 First International Photographic Exposition; Guild of
Photographic Dealers, Grand Central Place, New York
1955 Family of Man; Museum of Modern Art, New York,
New York
1962 The Bitter Years: 1935–1941; Museum of Modern Art,
New York, New York
1964 The Photographer’s Eye; Museum of Modern Art,
New York, New York
1965 Russell Lee: Retrospective; University Texas Art
Museum, Austin, Texas
1965 Photography in America 1850–1965; Yale University
Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
1976 Masters of the Camera: Stieglitz, Steichen and Their
Successors; International Center of Photography, Inter-
national Museum of Photography, New York, New
York
1978 Russell Lee; George Eastman House, Rochester, Inter-
national Museum of Photography, New YorkLEE, RUSSELL