John Collier, Jr. (American, 1913-1992)

John Collier's father was a social activist and United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1933 to 1945. Young Collier, who was born in Sparkill, New York, grew up in Mill Valley and Taos, and was apprenticed at age twelve with Maynard Dixon and Dorothea Lange, in San Francisco. In 1940, after free-lancing in New Mexico and California, he was hired by Roy Stryker for the FSA project. His contacts with Russell Lee, from whom he learned indoor flash technology, and other FSA photographers broadened his technical and aesthetic skills. He is best known for his documentary photographs of home interiors and the details they revealed about their occupants' lives.
- Marjorie Young

Selected Bibliography
Yates, Steve. "Cultural Landscapes: New Mexico, 1940-1943, A Special Collection of Photographs by Russell Lee, John Collier, Jr., Jack Delano," El Palacio (Summer 1991): 28-37.

Yates, Steve. Threads of Culture, Photography in New Mexico, 1939-1943. Santa Fe: Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, 1993.

Maloney, T.J., ed. US Camera, 1943. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pierce, 1943.

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