Jack Delano; Photographer of the Depression

Jack Delano, 83, a photographer, filmmaker, cartoonist, graphic designer and composer. Less known than Dorothea Lange or Arthur Rothstein, Delano was nevertheless among the handful of photographers who recorded the Great Depression for the Farm Security Administration. Among his most-praised pictures, which took on the look of Old Masters paintings, was one of a Thanksgiving dinner in Connecticut featuring grapes and a pitcher of water as the cornerstone of the feast. Delano had lived in Puerto Rico since 1946, photographing the area’s transformation from a poor agriculture-based economy to an industrialized society with a greatly improved standard of living. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Delano came to the United States as a child, grew up in Philadelphia and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which gave him a fellowship to travel through Europe in 1935. His travels introduced him to the art he later instilled in his photographs. On Tuesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico.