A Strategy of Truth: Andreas Feininger and the Creation of Propaganda for the Office of War Information, 1942. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Swensen, James
• Is Part Of: History of photography. Volume 43:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 84
• Page End: 109
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Andreas Feininger -- Bauhaus, New Vision -- World War II -- propaganda -- New Deal photography -- Office of War Information -- industrial photography; Photography -- History -- Periodicals; 770.905
• DOI: 10.1080/03087298.2019.1575050
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0308-7298

Abstract

Abstract : In 1942 photographer Andreas Feininger travelled across the United States documenting war industries for the Office of War Information, a New Deal agency. In the midst of world war, Feininger's straightforward photographs of plane production, copper mining, and other key industries were carefully crafted propaganda designed to combat German rhetoric and bolster public support and confidence in the war effort. Feininger's style, an admixture of modernist ideas and social detachment, found resonance within US ideological efforts that stressed data and facts, and became known as the 'Strategy of Truth'.