Providing a unique view of American life during the Great Depression and Second World War, each volume in the Fields of Vision series focuses on a single photographer whose vision helped shape the collective identity of America and influenced the way we look at photographs in the 21st century. All of the images in each volume are chosen from the Library of Congress's renowned collection of Farm Security Administration (FSA) and Office of War Information (OWI) photographs.

Arthur Rothstein (1915–1985) met Roy Stryker, the future head of the Farm Security Administration photography project, while still an undergraduate at Columbia University. He followed Stryker to Washington, DC, in 1935 to help set up the photo lab. While there, he picked up tips from the staff photographers and quickly became one himself. He spent five years with the agency and later had a long career at Look magazine.