The Brown Berets march against police brutality in 1974. Alan Pogue
In 1976, Russell Lee’s fine art photography class was booked three years in advance. Rather than wait, I decided to walk over to the Art School and speak with him directly.
Lee was holding office hours and was generous with his time. I told him I had recently been given an old Kodak 8×10 camera. He suggested that I buy Ansel Adams’s three-book set The Camera, The Negative, and The Print. He then asked what I was photographing at the time. I told him I was often in the Rio Grande Valley documenting farmworkers and traveling throughout Texas photographing inside prisons. Lee was pleased to hear that I was working in some of the same places and pursuing the same kind of documentary photography that he had undertaken in Texas during the 1940s.
He suggested that whenever I had new work, I should call him and bring it to his home so we could discuss it. I was told he enjoyed scotch, so I brought a bottle of Glenlivet 12 to our first meeting. He was delighted and added it to his traveling liquor case, alongside bottles of Pinch and Laphroaig. I also brought a folder of 8×10 prints I had made in Hidalgo, Texas. Rebecca Flores, head of Texas United Farm Workers, had sent me to a house where thirty four people lived without indoor plumbing, with a family occupying each room of the old brick building.
Lee commented that he appreciated the wide angle views of the rooms for their detail, noting the photographs, artwork, and cultural icons covering the walls. I had photographed the spaces both with and without on camera flash, creating a visual catalog of the lives lived within them. When I had not been traveling, I brought him photographs of employees at the Les Amis sidewalk café at 24th and San Antonio Streets in Austin.
One photograph did not please him. It was an image of a beautiful young waitress, but it failed to show that I truly saw her. It remained on the surface, more like a fashion photograph. Lee only smiled at photographs that revealed character. This was a profound lesson, taught not through words but through his expression. He was kind and never openly critical, yet his silence and subtle reactions told me everything I needed to know.
What Russell Lee taught me was to look deeply at context and content, and never to settle for a pleasing surface or a form that did not fully reveal itself.
Lee was holding office hours and was generous with his time. I told him I had recently been given an old Kodak 8×10 camera. He suggested that I buy Ansel Adams’s three-book set The Camera, The Negative, and The Print. He then asked what I was photographing at the time. I told him I was often in the Rio Grande Valley documenting farmworkers and traveling throughout Texas photographing inside prisons. Lee was pleased to hear that I was working in some of the same places and pursuing the same kind of documentary photography that he had undertaken in Texas during the 1940s.
He suggested that whenever I had new work, I should call him and bring it to his home so we could discuss it. I was told he enjoyed scotch, so I brought a bottle of Glenlivet 12 to our first meeting. He was delighted and added it to his traveling liquor case, alongside bottles of Pinch and Laphroaig. I also brought a folder of 8×10 prints I had made in Hidalgo, Texas. Rebecca Flores, head of Texas United Farm Workers, had sent me to a house where thirty four people lived without indoor plumbing, with a family occupying each room of the old brick building.
Lee commented that he appreciated the wide angle views of the rooms for their detail, noting the photographs, artwork, and cultural icons covering the walls. I had photographed the spaces both with and without on camera flash, creating a visual catalog of the lives lived within them. When I had not been traveling, I brought him photographs of employees at the Les Amis sidewalk café at 24th and San Antonio Streets in Austin.
One photograph did not please him. It was an image of a beautiful young waitress, but it failed to show that I truly saw her. It remained on the surface, more like a fashion photograph. Lee only smiled at photographs that revealed character. This was a profound lesson, taught not through words but through his expression. He was kind and never openly critical, yet his silence and subtle reactions told me everything I needed to know.
What Russell Lee taught me was to look deeply at context and content, and never to settle for a pleasing surface or a form that did not fully reveal itself.
Alan Pogue came to Austin in 1968 after serving in Vietnam as a chaplain’s assistant and combat medic. Earlier in the 1960s, he had been a boarding student at St. Edward’s University. Returning to Austin, he enrolled at the University of Texas to study philosophy and rebuild his worldview. It was there that he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War shortly after encountering the group on campus.
While living at the University YWCA, Pogue became involved with the Community United Front, which operated the Breakfast for Children program. At the same time, The Rag, Austin’s underground newspaper, was headquartered in the building’s basement. Pogue became the paper’s photographer, marking the beginning of his career in photojournalism and documentary photography. He soon found himself documenting liberation movements and social justice struggles, using photography as a tool to help communities tell their own stories.
Through his study of photographic history, Pogue learned that Russell Lee, the renowned documentary photographer, was living in Austin and teaching at the University of Texas. Seeking mentorship beyond the academic sphere, Pogue approached Lee and began a ten-year conversation about photography, ethics, and storytelling. Lee’s classes were filled years in advance, but their independent dialogue became a formative influence on Pogue’s work.
Pogue began contributing to The Texas Observer in 1973 and has photographed for the national and international prison reform organization C.U.R.E. since its first meeting in 1975. In 1990, he co-founded the Austin chapter of Veterans for Peace. In 1983, he received the Dobie Paisano Fellowship from the Texas Institute of Letters, which allowed him to live at J. Frank Dobie’s ranch and complete a portfolio on farmworkers commissioned by the University of Texas Mexican American Studies Department. His work later took him across the United States documenting farmworker clinics for the National Center for Farmworker Health, an exhibition that helped secure federal funding and continues to travel.
Internationally, Pogue has photographed prison conditions throughout Central and South America for a 2007 presentation to the Organization of American States. That same year, the University of Texas Press published Witness for Justice, a book of his photographs. His assignments have also taken him to Iraq to document the effects of sanctions, war, and the collapse of medical infrastructure, as well as to Pakistan to photograph Afghan refugees. In addition to documenting injustice, Pogue has worked directly to assist war-injured children, bringing several to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment. Much of this humanitarian work was carried out in collaboration with Cole Miller and the organization No More Victims.
While living at the University YWCA, Pogue became involved with the Community United Front, which operated the Breakfast for Children program. At the same time, The Rag, Austin’s underground newspaper, was headquartered in the building’s basement. Pogue became the paper’s photographer, marking the beginning of his career in photojournalism and documentary photography. He soon found himself documenting liberation movements and social justice struggles, using photography as a tool to help communities tell their own stories.
Through his study of photographic history, Pogue learned that Russell Lee, the renowned documentary photographer, was living in Austin and teaching at the University of Texas. Seeking mentorship beyond the academic sphere, Pogue approached Lee and began a ten-year conversation about photography, ethics, and storytelling. Lee’s classes were filled years in advance, but their independent dialogue became a formative influence on Pogue’s work.
Pogue began contributing to The Texas Observer in 1973 and has photographed for the national and international prison reform organization C.U.R.E. since its first meeting in 1975. In 1990, he co-founded the Austin chapter of Veterans for Peace. In 1983, he received the Dobie Paisano Fellowship from the Texas Institute of Letters, which allowed him to live at J. Frank Dobie’s ranch and complete a portfolio on farmworkers commissioned by the University of Texas Mexican American Studies Department. His work later took him across the United States documenting farmworker clinics for the National Center for Farmworker Health, an exhibition that helped secure federal funding and continues to travel.
Internationally, Pogue has photographed prison conditions throughout Central and South America for a 2007 presentation to the Organization of American States. That same year, the University of Texas Press published Witness for Justice, a book of his photographs. His assignments have also taken him to Iraq to document the effects of sanctions, war, and the collapse of medical infrastructure, as well as to Pakistan to photograph Afghan refugees. In addition to documenting injustice, Pogue has worked directly to assist war-injured children, bringing several to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment. Much of this humanitarian work was carried out in collaboration with Cole Miller and the organization No More Victims.
Russell Lee (1903–1986) was an American documentary photographer best known for his work with the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. His photographs form one of the most comprehensive visual records of American life in the twentieth century, documenting rural communities, labor, migration, and everyday domestic spaces with clarity and empathy.
Lee was known for his technical innovation, particularly his use of direct flash photography to capture indoor environments that other photographers of the era avoided. After years of work for federal agencies, including documentation of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, he settled in Austin in 1947. In 1965, he became the first photography instructor at the University of Texas, influencing generations of photographers through his commitment to socially engaged documentary work.
Lee was known for his technical innovation, particularly his use of direct flash photography to capture indoor environments that other photographers of the era avoided. After years of work for federal agencies, including documentation of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, he settled in Austin in 1947. In 1965, he became the first photography instructor at the University of Texas, influencing generations of photographers through his commitment to socially engaged documentary work.
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Chicana Brown Beret, Diana Barron
Austin, Texas, 1981 Alan Pogue 22 × 14½ inches |
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Repeal the Camping Ban
Austin, Texas, 1996 Alan Pogue Vigil and camping in downtown Austin in defiance of the homeless camping ban. Molly Ivins is speaking with Steve Fromholtz. |
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Family Moving from San Angelo to Wyoming
San Angelo, Texas, 1949 Russell Lee 16½ × 12½ inches |
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Shoeshine Boy Reading the Comics
San Antonio, Texas, 1949 Russell Lee 9 × 9 inches |
Schoolgirl at Her Desk
San Angelo, Texas, 1949 Russell Lee 14 × 11 inches Cropped version favored by Russell Lee, printed by Alan Pogue. |
Schoolgirl at Her Desk
San Angelo, Texas, 1949 Russell Lee 18 × 12 inches Full version |
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The Cortez Family at the Capitol
Austin, Texas, 1979 Alan Pogue 12 feet × 18 inches The Muleshoe to Austin march for farmworker justice. |
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Jubilee Singing for the U.T. Bus Drivers’ Strike
Austin, Texas, circa 1974 Members shown left to right: Linda Evans, Alice Embree, Frances Barton, and Lisa Rogers. |
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Magnum Photo Agency Dinner with André Kertész, Prince Philip, and Russell Lee (gesturing)
Charles Harbutt 7 × 10 inches |
Painting of Russell Lee
Jimmy Jalopeño (James Bonar) James Bonar was one of Russell Lee’s teaching assistants. Gift of Jean Lee. |
Portrait of Russell Lee, Smiling
Ave Bonar 1983 8 × 12 inches |
Kitchen in a home for 34 people in Hidalgo, 1979
Headstart, 1979
Hidalgo, Texas, 1979 Alan Pogue 8 × 12 inches Portrait of Marisol Sanchez. |
Portrait of Marisol Sanchez, 2017
Alan Pogue 12 × 8 inches Marisol is holding her portrait from 1979. |
John Collier, 1979
Alan Pogue 8 × 12 inches John was one of the Farm Security Administration's (FSA)photographers. |
Marion Post Wolcott, FSA Photographer, 1979
Alan Pogue 8 × 12 inches |
Jack Delano, FSA Photographer, 1979
Alan Pogue |
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John Collier, Mamie Walters, and Mary Collier at the FSA Symposium
Alan Pogue Amarillo, Texas, 1979 |
We Will Eat at Any Cost, 1969
Alan Pogue
18 × 12 inches
The Breakfast for Children Program was founded by Larry Jackson in Austin, Texas. Their office was in the YMCA building at 2200 Guadalupe Street.
Alan Pogue
18 × 12 inches
The Breakfast for Children Program was founded by Larry Jackson in Austin, Texas. Their office was in the YMCA building at 2200 Guadalupe Street.
War Machine Off Campus
Austin, Texas, 1970
Alan Pogue
12 × 18 inches
Students at the University of Texas at Austin demonstrate against the Vietnam War on the south steps of the Student Union.
Austin, Texas, 1970
Alan Pogue
12 × 18 inches
Students at the University of Texas at Austin demonstrate against the Vietnam War on the south steps of the Student Union.
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The Oleo Strut
Killeen, Texas, 1970 Alan Pogue 12 × 18 inches The Oleo Strut was an anti-war coffeehouse for active-duty soldiers at Ft. Hood. They are reading newspapers published by other anti-war soldiers. |
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A Rag Staff Meeting
Austin, Texas, 1970 Alan Pogue 8 × 12 inches Weekly staff meeting to select content for the next issue. Jim Franklin is on the back left, stroking his beard; he invented the Armadillo as a symbol of the Austin cultural scene. |
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Molly Ivins Editing the Texas Observer, 1975
Alan Pogue |
Down Through the Bars
Alan Pogue, 1984 12 × 18 inches The common area for a row of cells, equipped with a TV and tables for games. |
Lost Youth
Alan Pogue, 1984 12 × 18 inches Some prisoners looked too young to be in an adult prison. I was photographing for the compliance phase of the Riuz v. Estelle case. |
Grandfather Jabber and Grandchildren
Hebron, West Bank, 2000
12 × 18 inches
The grandfather holds a 300-year-old deed from the Ottoman Empire and a survey. The Jabber family has had homes demolished by the Israeli Army.
Hebron, West Bank, 2000
12 × 18 inches
The grandfather holds a 300-year-old deed from the Ottoman Empire and a survey. The Jabber family has had homes demolished by the Israeli Army.
Alan Taniguchi, Standing, and Isamu Taniguchi, Seated
Alan Pogue The Taniguchi family was placed in relocation detention facilities during World War II. With help from the Quakers, Alan continued his education and became an architect. In his seventies, Isamu built the Taniguchi Gardens in Zilker Park; here, he is shown after planting a tree in the newly formed Peace Grove. |
John Henry Faulk and the Dove of Peace
Austin, Texas, 1985 Alan Pogue At the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Memorial at Lou Neff Point, Zilker Park. |
Into Future
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Luz Haiti
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Profesora
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Janis Lawson, Community United Front
Alan Pogue, Austin, Texas, circa 1970 Janis Lawson prepares food for the Breakfast for Children program, which often included bacon, eggs, grits, pancakes, toast, sausage, and a cup of milk or juice. |
Welcome to East Austin
Alan Pogue, Austin, Texas, circa 1970 Billboard in full view of IH-35 traffic by Larry Jackson of the Community United Front, highlighting the systematic neglect of East Austin. |
We Will Never Forget Kent State
Alan Pogue, Austin, Texas, 1970 Kent State demonstration in Austin, May 8, 1970. |
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Alan
Dave Richards, 1975 Alan lays out a page in The Rag on IUDs, wearing a gas mask after police had thrown so many tear gas canisters on Guadalupe Street that people evacuated the Varsity Theater and nearby establishments. I put on my gas mask in the darkroom and kept working. The Rag office was at 2330 Guadalupe. The publication strongly influenced my photography in the late 1960s and 1970s. At the time, I lived in the University YWCA. |
The Short Hoe
Alan Pogue
The short hoe was finally outlawed in 1975. The field manager had a regular hoe to lean on, while workers were forced to bend their backs all day for no good reason.
Alan Pogue
The short hoe was finally outlawed in 1975. The field manager had a regular hoe to lean on, while workers were forced to bend their backs all day for no good reason.
