Watch Cineb. A Great Depression relays how the Farm Security Administration's documentary photography program, led by Roy E. Stryker, was used to portray the effect of government aid on poor farmers in the 1930s - 1940s. More than 175,000 photos taken for the project captured the American spirit, yet Stryker "killed" many of them by punching a hole through the negatives, a practice he never explained but ultimately discontinued.