"At the time of his death in 1976, A. M. "Pete" Wettach left behind an enormous collection - some tens of thousands of images - that provides a breathtaking complement to the work of other American photojournalists of his time. A self-taught photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration as a county supervisor in southeast Iowa during the 1930s and 1940s, he carried his camera as he traveled across the countryside visiting clients.

Although Wettach was not hired as an FSA photographer, his pictures provide a fascinating parallel to the more famous work of his FSA colleagues Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Russell Lee. Yet unlike their photographs, his reveal an amazing intimacy and familiarity with his subjects, who were frequently his friends, neighbors, family members, and clients."--BOOK JACKET.