In 1935 he joined the Resettlement Administration (which became the FSA) as a photographer. Mydans traveled in the South, documenting agricultural workers and rural poverty, and toured New England towns hard-hit by the Depression. His work was distinguished by his ability to tell an entire story in a single image. After sixteen months with the government, Mydans left to work at Life magazine, where he stayed until the magazine closed in the early 1970s. He died in 2004.