Photos of 1930s rural America ruined with hole punches, creating the greatest photoshop challenge ever

The US Farm Security Administration commissioned hundreds of thousands of photos in the 1930s and 40s, representing an unparalleled record of the times. Unfortunately, as revealed in an exhibition curated by Bill McDowell, many of the shots were badly damaged with hole punches. The results are an unsettling, inadvertent commentary on the depression and the lives it ruined – and also an incredible challenge for photoshoppers.

Easy mode (Five-bedroom house, Meridian Homesteads, Mississippi, 1935)

Hard mode (Mr Tronson, farmer near Wheelock, North Dakota, 1937)