Jack Delano

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Jack Delano
Tobacco plantation in Puerto Rico, 1941
Workers in the ATSF workshop in 1943
Yardmaster, Amarillo Texas, 1943
Slum girls in Utuado, Puerto Rico (1942)

Jack Delano (born August 1, 1914 in Voroshilovka , Ukraine , † August 12, 1997 in Puerto Rico ) was an American photographer and composer. He became known for his photos for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and his compositions using Puerto Rican folklore.

Life

Jack Delano was born Jakob Oftscharow in Voroshilovka, Ukraine. In 1923 he emigrated to the United States with his parents and younger brother . From 1924 to 1935 he studied viola and composition at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia and solfège at the Curtis Institute . Thanks to an art scholarship, he was able to study illustration at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1932 to 1937 . While on a European study trip through a Cresson scholarship, he acquired a photo camera and began to be interested in photography.

After finishing his studies, he worked as a freelance photographer and documentary filmmaker. He submitted a photography project to the Works Progress Administration's Federal Arts Program . He documented illegal anthracite mining in Schuylkill County , Pennsylvania . The head of the Farm Security Administration Roy Stryker became aware of his work and made Delano an offer as a photographer in 1940 for a salary of 2,300 dollars a year. In 1941 he traveled to Puerto Rico as part of an FSA project. This trip led to his taking up residence on the island from 1946. From November 1942 he photographed goods traffic on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Chicago and North Western Railway, among other things . His color photos of railway workers from this time are best known. In 1943 Delano was finally called up. During his military service, he traveled to the South Pacific and South America.

On behalf of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, he created a photo documentation from 1946 on the living conditions in Puerto Rico. Because of their friendship with Luis Muñóz Marín , the later governor of the island, they began to fight against illiteracy. From 1946 to 1952, he and his wife Irene produced seven films for the public education authority, some of which he wrote the script. After the end of his work, he began to be interested in folk art and folk music in Puerto Rico. From 1957 to 1969 he was deputy program director at the radio station WIPR.

From the end of the 1950s he began to intensify his compositional work. His musical work encompasses a wide variety of forms. He wrote orchestral works, ballets, chamber music, chorales and solo songs. In his work he often used the texts of his friend and colleague Tomás Blanco .

Together with Blanco and his wife, he published children's books from 1970, which he illustrated. After the death of his wife in 1982, he began traveling to exhibit his photographs and perform his musical works.

Works

orchestra
  • Ofrenda Musical for viola, horn and strings (1959)
  • El sabio Doctor Mambú , children's ballet (1962)
  • Concertino classico for C trumpet and small orchestra (1968)
  • Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1983)
Chamber and instrumental music
  • Sonata in A minor for viola and piano (1953)
  • Sonata for violin (1960)
  • Sonatina for flute (1965)
  • String Quartet (1984)
  • Tres preludios for piano (1985)
singing
Scripts
  • Los Peloteros (1953) (film about poor Puerto Rican children and their passion for baseball)
Books
  • Tenants of the almighty (1943)
  • Portrait of a decade (1972)
  • In this proud land (1973)
  • A vision shared (1976)
  • The iron horse at war (1977)
  • Puerto Rico Mio: Four Decades of Change in Photographs (1990), ISBN 978-0874743890
  • En busca del Maestro Rafael Cordero / In search of The Master Rafael Cordero (1994), ISBN 978-0847700806
  • Superfortress over Japan: Twenty-Four Hours With a B-29: 24 with a B-29 Field (1996), ISBN 978-0879389765
  • That's Life / Así es la vida (1996), ISBN 978-0847702473
  • Photographic Memories: The Autobiography of Jack Delano (1997), ISBN 978-1560987413
  • Cuatro sones de la tierra: Laura Virella, mezzo-soprano, Nathaniel LaNasa, piano

Web links

Commons : Jack Delano  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Delano, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oftscharow, Jakob (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer and composer
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Voroshilovka , Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1997
Place of death Puerto Rico