Arthur Rothstein's Infamous "skull, Bad Lands, South Dakota"

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Arthur Rothstein's Infamous "skull, Bad Lands, South Dakota"

About the Item

ARTHUR ROTHSTEIN (AMERICAN 1915 - 85) Skull, Bad Lands, South Dakota Gelatin silver print Negative: 1936; Printed: ca. 1972 Stamp, titled, numbered, dated, and annotated, verso. Printed from the original negative under the supervision of Arthur Rothstein by Berkey K & L Custom Services, Inc., NY. Images size: 8 1/8" x 8 ¼"; paper size: 11" x 14" Arthur Rothstein was just twenty-one years old in May 1936 when he traveled to Pennington County, South Dakota to document desperate Dust Bowl conditions for the Resettlement Administration. On this trip he made five photographs of a bleached skull of a steer on the dry sun-baked earth of the South Dakota Badlands. The stark image suggested a lush American landscape gone awry. Each image varied by background, light and shadow. When he sent the images to Roy Stryker, the head of the Historical Section of the RA, in June of '36, Stryker wrote approvingly, "Your last set of pictures which included Pennington County, South Dakota were most excellent". Soon the images were being used in newspapers and magazine across the country, and Rothstein received letter from the RA in July '36 as well saying "the pictures which you made in the drought area are front page news by this time … Resettlement is all over the picture pages". By the end of the summer however, when the Fargo Forum (North Dakota) broke a news story with his skull pictures under the title "It's a Fake!" They said, "The skull? Oh, that's a moveable 'prop' which comes in handy for photographers who want to touch up their pictures with a bit of grisly." Like most newspapers of the time, the Fargo Forum was staunchly opposed to the Democratic Party and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. They printed the story when Roosevelt was campaigning in the Dakotas and used it as the perfect opportunity cast doubt on his New Deal agencies. In response the RA admitted that "one view of the skull was taken on alkali ground and then moved about ten feet onto grassy ground …I can't see how that can be called a fake." The story snow - balled into a major news event which not only hit the newspapers but wound up with stories in Time magazine and became the focus of a satirical piece by Westbrook Pegler. Even cartoonists of the time satirized Rothstein and pictured him wandering all over the United States with a skull in his suitcase! In an interview with Richard Doud in 1964 Rothstein openly discussed this controversial photograph. He explained that since many of the images taken for the Resettlement Administration were used in publications, the Associated Press had access to the files as well. Max Hill, the photo editor of the AP, knew nothing about the West and when he saw the skull photos in the RA files he saw them as symbols of the drought. The fact that the image had been made in May, and was of a steer skull one could find anywhere in the West meant nothing to him. He just liked the picture, the caption that accompanied it had been placed there by the Associated Press not the RA, yet the RA took the brunt of the criticism. This example of the famous photograph was printed from the negative in the early 1970's and represents an opportunity to acquire not only an engaging image from the Resettlement Administration but an image that sparked national debate over New Deal programs.

Creator:
Arthur Rothstein (Artist)
Materials and Techniques:
Silver Gelatin
Period:
1930-1939
Date of Manufacture:
Negative: 1936; Printed: ca. 1972
Condition:
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU8889857433

Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Photography

Materials

Wood, Paper

Framed Editioned Photograph Raking Leaves Arthur Tress

$3,600