Marion Warren's Tobacco Photos

While hoping to track down an original of Marion Warren's photo of the waitresses in the surf at Ocean City, I came across theses picture that he took of Maryland tobacco crops. I wanted to post them since it is a subject I like by an artist whose place based subject matter I find very inspirational.


















"34. 1956 circa: For me, a photograph really succeeds if it can explain its subject completely. Here you can see the tobacco plant clearly in the foreground, that it is being harvested by hand and drawn by horses. There's the typical tobacco barn with its slats open for the crop to dry, and there's the farmer's house. Today, of course, there would be a tractor instead of horses. In fact, this particular scene no longer exists; the community of Annapolis Cove on Bay Ridge Avenue is now on the site of this farm. MSA SC 1890-02-14 "

"92. 1968: I rarely get more than two or three good pictures in a day, and sometimes only one. I was driving in Calvert County, on my way to photograph a cypress swamp (93), when I saw this tobacco barn. The lighting was perfect, and I quickly set up the camera. I debated about removing the Nehi bottle, but decided that it added the human element. I almost shot it both ways--with the bottle and without it--but I said, no sir, you don't chicken out, you shoot it the way you see it. MSA SC 1890-05-2500" From The Eye of the Beholder