Split Rail Fence and Corn Shocks c. 1940

Curator: Marion Post Wolcott’s "Split Rail Fence and Corn Shocks" presents a rural landscape, stark and patterned. Editor: It evokes a sense of quiet, almost mournful, industry. Look at the repetitive shapes of those corn shocks marching across the field. Curator: Wolcott, working for the Farm Security Administration, documented rural poverty and its surrounding landscapes. This image speaks to agricultural labor, doesn't it? The fence acts as a boundary, both physical and perhaps social. Editor: Precisely. The materials – wood, earth, crops – are so fundamental, yet the composition elevates them. Consider the craft in building those shocks, the labor concentrated in each one. How does it reflect land use? Curator: The image's power lies in showing how policies affected these laborers. It brings visibility to their everyday lives. Editor: And it asks us to consider the value placed on that labor, then and now.