the Denver Post's description "some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations" .
Isn't this a moot point, what with the word 'effects'? As - with some dramatic exceptions such as the dust bowl - it took longer for the effects (emotional and physical) of the depression to hit small towns and rural areas, as sometimes did the effects of the recovery. Remember also, these are people who in those days didn't have much, who lived frugally and were used to doing without before the depression hit.
(My information is anecdotal. I have always received the impression from the stories I have heard, rural and urban alike, that the ending of the US depression was a fade out. Perhaps the closest one could come to a definitive ending is 1941 and the US involvement in WWII. I do think statistics are helpful in providing a framework, but they are also misleading when it comes to the human story, each story, which these photographs definitely are.)
The photos are gorgeous. I love black and white, but there is absolutely no comparison when it comes to identifying with the subject and the immediacy in human portraiture done in color.
This is a side note, but it doesn't warrant a new thread. Today, I was reading about the US depression and specifically, the migration to California as I was remembering stories told by those who migrated here from Oklahoma, many of whom were proudly "Scotch". I thought some might find it interesting to find the origins of that Americanism and also the role these people played during the depression and the organization of unions, and elsewise and elsewhere - like American music.
Okie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okie (notice the term "Scotch Irish" in paragraph four)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_American