F.C. Nelson, Commissioner; Cecil Faris, Mayor; and H.W. Coleman, Commissioner, Town Hall, Tomball, Texas

Esther BubleyWW-1945-105379

1945·Gelatin silver print·25.1 × 33.5 cm (9 15/16 × 13 1/4 in.)

<p>After first working as a darkroom assistant for Roy Stryker’s Office of War Information (OWI) during World War II, Esther Bubley was assigned to take pictures of the home front for propagandistic purposes. In 1943 Stryker resigned from the OWI and began work on a public–relations project for the Standard Oil Company. In this new role, Stryker sent Bubley and other photographers across the United States to document the booming oil industry and illustrate its positive impact on everyday life. In 1945 Bubley went on assignment to Tomball, Texas, a town nicknamed in the mid–1930s “Oiltown U.S.A., ” where she took this photograph.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1945
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 25.1 × 33.5 cm (9 15/16 × 13 1/4 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Esther Bubley

Artist

Esther Bubley

Photography

Esther Bubley was an American photographer who documented postwar American life through color and black-and-white photography, focusing on domestic interiors, public transportation, and ordinary citizens. Working primarily in the 1940s and 1950s, she created extensive series for the Farm Security Administration and other government agencies, capturing the texture of daily experience with compositional precision and psychological insight. Her work bridged documentary practice and fine art photography at a moment when color film remained largely relegated to commercial use.

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