Born 1914, St. Paul, Minnesota
Died 1975, New York City

A self-taught photographer, Vachon worked as a young man a clerk for the Farm Security Administration (FSA, 1937–42) and then in the Office of War Information (1942–43) in Washington, DC. At the FSA he met Roy Stryker, who oversaw a group of photographers documenting rural poverty in the United States; early influences at the FSA included Walker Evans and Ben Shahn. When Stryker left the FSA to work as a publicist at Standard Oil, Vachon joined (1943–44, 1947) his documentary photography project about the company and the industry, together with such illustrious photographers as Berenice Abbott, Harold Corsini, Arnold Eagle, Elliott Erwitt, and Sol Libsohn. After serving in the army in 1944–45, in 1947 Vachon joined the Photo League, where he wrote book reviews for Photo Notes and participated in the exhibition "This Is the Photo League" (1948–49). He was a staff photographer for Life in 1947–48) and, more enduringly, for Look (1947–71). After Look ceased publication he became a freelance; in 1973 he won a Guggenheim fellowship. Shortly before his death he was a visiting professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1974–75).