Esther Bubley wasn't as well known as other photographers who worked for Roy Stryker at the Office of War Information, people like Arthur Rothstein or Gordon Parks but Stryker was impressed with her work and while she was only twenty-two he sent her on a six-week assignment to cover wartime bus travel.
This fascinating book reveals Bubley's impressive photojournalism style. The three main chapters ('At the depot', 'Along the way' and 'Behind the scenes') reveal with over 140 photos how Greyhound carried the public in the summer of 1943 across the South and the Mid-West. Her photos clearly show that bus travel involved a lot of waiting around in various Greyhound bus stations because of speed limits, gas and tire rationing. 'Along the way' has Bubley on the bus photographing the passengers as they traveled across the Mid-West and the various stops at Greyhound Post Houses and small towns. The last selection of photos captures the folk who kept the company running, the drivers who were frequently away from home, mechanics working on engines, women cleaning bus interiors and others loading luggage or checking paperwork.
All the photos reproduce Bubley's original captions and the author adds a lot of background material that makes the photos even more interesting. As almost every photo has people in it it's worth looking at the clothing that the public wore in 1943.
Roy Stryker left the OWI to work for Standard Oil, Bubley went with him and in 1947 she repeated the original Greyhound bus journey assignment by traveling through New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
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