Front room of an apartment rented by Negroes

FSA Director Roy Stryker once called FSA photographer Russell Lee, a "taxonomist with a camera". Lee was known for being able to capture all the details of a subject; "he lays it on the table and says, 'there you are sir, in all its parts'." Lee's approach was particularly well suited to the Chicago project, whose collaborators shared a common desire to use photography as a way of understanding patterns of culture and social organization.