Arthur Rothstein was born in New York in 1915. While preparing for medical school, Rothstein ran into tuition problems. In 1935, he left college to join a colleague in what became the Farm Security Administration (FSA). He set up a photo lab and began going out on assignment, taking photo-graphs for the agency. Rothstein's most memorable assignment was a trip in 1936 to the Dust Bowl, where he shot the photographs that appear here.

Rothstein left the FSA in 1940 and went to work for Look magazine. During his career, Rothstein served in World War II as a photographer, wrote Photojournalism: Pictures for Magazines and Newspapers and taught college courses. He has also worked as associate editor of Parade magazine.