Cover

Publisher Note

Roy Stryker worked for Standard Oil in its public relations documentary project from 1943 to 1950.
In selecting photographers for projects at Standard Oil (SO), Stryker sought those who possessed what he described as an "insatiable curiosity, the kind that can get to the core of an assignment, the kind that can comprehend what a truck driver, or a farmer, or a driller or a housewife thinks and feels and translate those thoughts and feelings into pictures that can be similarly comprehended by anyone."

The Standard Oil project was conceived as one small part of a massive public relations effort intended to improve the company’s image. In 1942 the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice launched an investigation of cartel arrangements against Standard Oil and the German I.G. Farbenindustrie in which Standard renounced to pursue the development of a process for synthetic rubber and, in return, Farbenindustrie agreed not to compete as a producer or marketer of petroleum products on American soil. The Japanese invasion of the East Indies and Malaya, which together then furnished 90 % of America’s prewar crude rubber, created a severe shortage of this substance just as it became vital to the war effort. The US government admission of guilt that it had agreed not to engage in a massive synthetic rubber program before America’s entry into the war due to the great expense of such a project, didn’t offset the public’s hostile feelings toward Standard Oil.
Public relations, not advertising, was at the heart of Standard Oil’s employment of photographers and artists during the 1940’s, with the emphasis on creating a documentary record of its operations in America.

What made Stryker’s Standard Oil project distinctive from past efforts in industrial photography was its insistence on a comprehensive and realistic documentation of virtually every aspect of oil production and consumption.

Published in occasion of the exhibition entitled, Roy Stryker, U.S.A., 1943-1950, organized and circulated by the International Center of Photography.

Exhibition Catalogue

ROY STRYKER: U.S.A., 1943-1950

— The Standard Oil (New Jersey) Photography Project

Various Artists

edited by Steven W. Plattner

Publisher
Release Place Texas, United States of America
Edition 1st edition
Release Date 1983
Credits
Artist: Various Artists
Identifiers
ISBN-13: 9780292770287
Work  
Topics Documentary Photography, Oil, Standard Oil
Language English
Format Hardcover
Dimensions 22.0 × 28.5 cm
Pages 144

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