The People’s Artist | Timeless New England – Classic Images of Our Region

September 1940: Photographer Jack Delano was working with Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Lyman, Polish tobacco farmers in Connecticut. Known for his sensitivity and compassion when it came to his subjects, Delano watched in distress as the couple stared blankly and shifted uncomfortably when he took out his camera. He wanted to showcase the friendly, happy people who stood in front of his lens. To ease the tension, he told Lyman that his pants were falling. Instantly, Lyman grasped them. Mrs. Lyman realized what Delano was up to and started laughing. When she threw her head back, Delano got his shot.

Born Jacob Ovcharov in what is now Ukraine, Jack Delano (1914–1997) immigrated to the United States with his parents and brother in the early 1920s. In 1940, toward the end of the Great Depression, Roy E. Stryker hired him to photograph the lives of American workers along the Eastern Seaboard for the historical section of the Farm Security Administration. Although less recognized than fellow FSA photographers Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, Delano is remembered for his striking shots of railyards and his honest, respectful depiction of every individual he photographed.

In 1946, Delano and his wife, artist Irene Esser, moved to Puerto Rico, which they called home for the rest of their lives. He spent the second half of his career deeply involved in Puerto Rican folk culture; his decades-long project, Puerto Rico Mio, was published in 1990.