Russell Lee took these documentary photographs in the late 1930s under the sponsorship of the Farm Security Administration. He never became famous like some of the other government-funded photographers of the Depression (Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange) but even today he continues to earn the respect of professionals "for his technically excellent images." And it's all too true that when I study his handling of lighting and focus in these examples I gain a whole new understanding of the puniness of my own efforts.
Back in 2010 we saw Russell Lee's Kodachrome photographs (also for the FSA) of Pie Town, New Mexico.