Omen. Phantasmagoria at the Farm Security Administration Archive 1935-1944

“Omen” reexamines the Farm Security Administration’s photographic archive, revealing a lesser-known narrative that challenges traditional views of American history.

This book’s visual sequence breaks norms, creatively cropping images from the Farm Security Administration archives (1935-1944) at the New York Public Library.

Lucy Ives, the acclaimed American writer and poet, skilfully penned Omen’s captivating text. Ives has firmly established herself as a leading voice in the contemporary literary world, with numerous critically acclaimed publications to her name.

Chasing the ghost, the traces of oblivion, and the echoes of what was and no longer is, the book *Omen* is a revision and reframing of a fraction of the photographic archive of the Farm Security Administration (1935- 1944), hosted at the New York Public Library. That program was one of the milestones of modern documentary photography, instrumental in constructing a hegemonic narrative; one mainly about triumph against adversity, division, and catastrophe in the recent history of the United States.

But by gazing over that monumental set of images; by scrutinizing the corners of the pictures, the backgrounds, and details; by examining the secondary characters; in what should not be there and what appears by chance, accident or error, it is possible to discover a different narrative, one that is thicker, murkier, more troubled, complex, contemporary and contradictory. Both a shatter and an apex: a premonition of the genealogical continuity of the many (tumultuous, visible, and invisible, thunderous, and silent) systemic violences that make up the face of American society.

A book that serves as a mirror for the distressing reality of the United States these days, and, at the same time, as a device for reflection on the way historical and documentary photography is read and understood.