Street in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Jack Delano first traveled to Puerto Rico in 1941 on assignment for the Farm Security Administration. He became so enamored with the island that he and his wife, Irene, returned in 1946 on a Guggenheim fellowship that would turn into a permanent move.
In his memoir, “Photographic Memories”, he recalls his shock upon visiting the island for the first time: I was fascinated and disturbed by so much of what I saw. I had seen plenty of poverty in my travels in the Deep South, but never anything like this. But he refused to let that shock cloud his vision as a person or an artist, always affording his subjects the utmost respect. He noted that everywhere he traveled, “people…were cordial, hospitable, generous, kind and full of dignity and a sparkling sense of humor.”
After moving there permanently, Delano amassed fifty years’ worth of images of Puerto Rico, a visual love letter that shed light on the many facets of his adopted home: poverty to progress, urban sprawl to rich landscapes. As much as he loved Puerto Rico, it loved him back: he was considered a “Russian with the soul of a Boricua”, and upon his death in 1997, the Puerto Rican flag was draped over his casket.
