Tuskegee, Alabama, where Booker T. Washington, one of the first black schools, was founded (Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv)
Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv
"Chained convicts at Columbus, Georgia" 1937. (Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv)
Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv
Probably in Savannah, Georgia, 1937. (Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv)
Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv
Lumberton, North Carolina, November 1937. (Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv)
Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv
"Farmer from Lincoln County Tennessee uses TVA electricity" (Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv)
Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv
Between 1936 and 1938, Swiss photographer Annemarie Schwarzenbach travelled several times to the United States. swissinfo.ch looks at a selection of her work that documents the Great Depression.
In the 1930s, Annemarie Schwarzenbach crossed America to get closer to the people and their stories. What emerged was a body of socially critical writings and images.
In 1936, she followed the re-election of Franklin Roosevelt in New York, and the following year she traveled with American journalist and photographer Barbara Hamilton-Wright to the southern states. They used Rolleiflex cameras to capture prisons, cotton plantations, factories and the working population. “The vision of a better life, the long-held American dream, has a shadow cast over it as the roads lead south,” wrote Schwarzenbach in her report “On the dark side of Knoxville”.
In our series #swisshistorypics we travel back in time in black and white with Annemarie Schwarzenbach to visit the four corners of the world.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
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At once fragile – she suffered drug addiction – and courageous, she travelled to remote Afghanistan in the 1930s, Annemarie fascinated both men and women. Friday marked the 100th anniversary of her birth. An exhibition on her life is currently being held in the Strauhof Museum in Zurich, which is curated by the historian Alexis…
Annemarie Schwarzenbach: on desolate roads heading east
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Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Swiss author and photographer Annemarie Schwarzenbach travelled to the Middle East.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.