Pie Town Farmer by Russell Lee, 1940 Cars This was more Don Quixote

This was more Don Quixote than Sir Lancelot

– The New York Times

and a centre of newly imported Western technology such as gas-powered street lamps

imparting a great deal of historical authenticity

and looks out of the canvas with wide eyes

Pie Town Farmer by Russell Lee, 1940 Cars This was more Don QuixoteABOUT THIS PHOTOGRAPH Throughout June 1940, FSA photographer Russell Lee stayed in Pie Town, New Mexico, documenting everyday life and the community. The photographs, many of them in genuine colour, have become an iconic series of photographs. It continues to astound me how intensely garish and saturated colours are in the 1940s, particularly in the near ubiquitous advertising for tobacco of various kinds. For this photograph, I had something I