Born May 11, 1893
Great Bend, Kansas

Died September 26, 1975
Grand Junction, Colorado

Pictorial historian, documentarian

Roy Stryker. ©Bettmann/CORBIS. Reproduced by permission.

"We introduced Americans to America. The reason we could do this, I think…was that all of us [FSA photographers] in the unit, were so personally involved in the times, and the times were so peculiarly what they were."

Roy Stryker

Roy Stryker was not a photographer, but he understood that pictures spoke louder than words. His talent was recognizing great photographs that told a story, then compiling and organizing those photographs. In doing so Stryker played a key role in introducing documentary photography to the people of the United States. Documentary photographs tell so much about a subject that they can serve as historical documents. They record and mirror the social and political scene of a particular time, providing images of work, play, family, church...