Images made by famous photographers sell for thousands of dollars and are outside the reach of most people. Having seen these images in books and on the internet, people have grown to know the work of the pioneers of photography. As time passes many of these images gain in value and become even less accessible to the guy on the street. Now, it is possible to acquire some very important and historical images for barely the cost of making a print.

Copyright prevents people from copying images and selling them to the public but when the copyright owner is the US government the story  is slightly different. From 1935 - 1944 a group of photographers were hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to document the plight of poor farmers affected by the dust bowl.

Dorothea Lange - Florence Owens Thompson

Another famous photographer who's work is found in the Library of Congress is Ansel Adams. Ever thought of owning an Ansel Adams print? Well, for 25 bucks you can. It is not a print he made himself but it came from his original negative. In giving this collection to the Library in the 1960's, Ansel Adams placed no restrictions on its use.

The prints don't have a resale value because of the availability of images and the copyright situation. They are meant for people to enjoy. I have had a Walker Evans that I ordered from the Library of Congress when I was a poor starving art student. I paid $7.00 at the time and it was printed on fiber-based paper. I ordered two prints and one was better than the other. Everywhere I have lived I have taken my Walker Evans with me and displayed it with pride.

The collection contains over 160,000 images, almost all of which are online for selection. Prints can be ordered from the Photoduplication Service of the Library of Congress. Prices start at $25.00 for an 8" x 10" print, a fraction of what it would cost had it been a vinatge print, not owned by the government.

Ansel Adams's photographs of Japanese-American internment at Manzanar