Of course I realize that photography is not the technical facility as much as it is the eye, and this decision that one makes for the moment at which you are going to snap, you know.

Shahn’s examination of the status quo inspired his creative process. Similarly Shahn’s New Deal art for the FSA and Resettlement Agency exposed American living and working conditions. Shahn defended his choice to employ pictorial realities rather than abstract forms.

He is best known for his works of social realism his left-wing political views and his series of lectures publiBen Shahnd as The Shape of Content.