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Posts Tagged ‘Dorothea’

Oakland Museum of California showcases the work of Dorothea Lange in a free online exhibition

12 Aug

The Oakland Museum of California has put together a digital archive of photographs captured by Dorothea Lange, showcasing some of the best works from the 20th-century documentary photographer and photojournalist.

The extensive archive is split into four categories: The Depression, World War II at Home, Post-War Projects and Early Work/Personal Work. Each of the categories provide a synopsis of Lange’s work during the specified timeframes and further divides her images into themed galleries, which show not only the images Lange captured, but also supplementary material, such as notes to Lange from the United States Department of Agriculture, contact sheets of Lange’s images, maps of her travel routes and more.

It’s a fascinating, insightful and sometimes heartbreaking journey through the life and work of one of the most iconic 20th century American photographers. The online exhibition is entirely free to view, so set aside a few hours and head on over to the Oakland Museum of California website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Let’s talk about Dorothea Lange

08 Mar
Dorothea Lange at work in California, 1936. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.

If you don’t know Dorothea Lange by name, you know ‘Migrant Mother’. It’s an image that’s practically synonymous with the Dust Bowl, a period of devastating drought in the North American plains that displaced hundreds of thousands. If you’ve opened an American history textbook or watched a Great Depression documentary on PBS, you’ve probably seen Lange’s classic photo.

it’s time to get better acquainted with Dorothea Lange and recognize her for who she was: a complete and utter boss

The work was part of a major project run by the Farm Security Administration, which involved multiple photographers including Walker Evans. Lange played a major role, and is best known for this Depression-era work, while other images like her photos of Japanese American internment and incarceration have only relatively recently gained wider recognition. And it probably comes as no surprise that behind this legacy was an incredibly resilient, hardworking woman whose body of work is as moving and relevant today as it was decades ago.

So just in case you haven’t already, it’s time to get better acquainted with Dorothea Lange and recognize her for who she was: a complete and utter boss.

She knew she was a photographer before she ever picked up a camera

On graduating school and being asked what career she’d like to pursue, Lange’s response was quick: a photographer. She’d never actually held a camera before, but that didn’t stop her. She walked into a well-known portrait photographer’s studio one day and asked for any job he could give her. Thus her career was born – she learned the trade and acquired her first camera.

She didn’t let trivial setbacks – like having all of her money stolen – hold her back

Born on the East Coast, Lange launched her career in San Francisco and many of her best-known works were made in western states. So how did she end up settling on the other side of the country? Funny story!

After graduating school she and a friend embarked on what was meant to be a trip around the world with her best friend. They only got as far as San Francisco when they encountered a minor setback: all of their money was stolen. Did they ask their parents for help? Admit defeat and go back home? Heck no, they just got jobs and decided to live there. Lange went on to establish a successful portrait photography business.

Her less well-known photos of Japanese American internment are as poignant and raw today as they were nearly 80 years ago

Well into her professional career she was hired by the federal government to take photos of Japanese Americans during internment and incarceration. Many websites (this one included) have reported in the past few years that the photos she took were hidden for decades from the public by officials, deeming them too biased against the government’s actions.

That’s not the case. While it’s true that the images were withheld for the duration of World War II, they’ve been available to the public ever since. Either way, the photos and the humanity that Lange captured are as poignant today as ever.

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Even with mobility limitations, she never slowed down

Throughout her life, Lange walked with a limp – an effect of surviving polio in childhood. Toward the end of her career the lingering effects of the disease took a severe toll on her body, and when she couldn’t work through the physical pain any longer, began photographing subjects close to home. She worked right up until her death in 1965, planning her MoMA retrospective – the first for any female photographer.

Dorothea Lange Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 1966. Photo by Rolf R. Petersen.

Her approach to documentary photography remains exemplary today – even if she didn’t always get it right

Lange considered her portrait subjects collaborators and is quoted as saying “I never steal a photograph.” While many of today’s working photographers share that philosophy, every now and again the debate re-surfaces around street photography and photography in third-world countries when a photo feels less like a collaboration and more like exploitation.

Nobody’s perfect of course. Lange admits that she did not ask for the name of her ‘Migrant Mother’ portrait subject, Florence Owens Thompson, who was embarrassed by the photo and didn’t want to be publicly identified when it began to gain recognition. Despite it being one of the works that solidified Lange’s legacy, Thompson received no benefit from it – financial or otherwise – until her family asked for help supporting her medical care at the very end of Thompson’s life.

However, Lange’s limited interaction with Thompson has been attributed to the photographer’s exhaustion after a long trip, and certainly appears to be a deviation from her standard approach of getting to know her subjects. As photographers – and human beings, really – that’s a philosophy we can still learn a lot from.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: The making of Dorothea Lange’s iconic ‘Migrant Mother’ photograph

01 Feb

It’s one of the most iconic photographs in American history and it was captured by one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. The world knows the photograph as ‘Migrant Mother,’ and it’s seen throughout photography textbooks the world over, but how exactly did the image come to be and what led Dorothea Lange to capture the portrait of Florence Owens Thompson and her children?

YouTuber Nerdwriter1, who’s known for his thorough deep dives into various people and subjects, has created a video essay that takes a look into the history behind ‘Migrant Mother’ and the events that led up to Lange capturing the photograph. Throughout the nearly seven minute video, Nerdwriter1 explains what exactly Lange was doing when she captured the photograph and shows a number of images captured in the ten minutes leading up to the iconic frame to paint a picture of how the image was shaped frame by frame to get the powerful portrait known today.

Yes, the video is presented in portrait orientation, but Nerdwriter1 is known for experimenting with delivery and he particular chose this aspect as he explains in the highlighted comment on the video’s page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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A fresh look at Dorothea Lange’s censored photos of Japanese internment

11 Dec

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Dorothea Lange’s photos of Japanese interment in America are less well-known than her other Farm Security Administration works like ‘Migrant Mother’ – and there’s a reason for that. The unflinching view of the events captured in her photos landed them in the US National Archive, with many labeled ‘impounded,’ where they sat for decades.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government announced the mandatory relocation of people of Japanese ancestry, the majority of which were American citizens, to internment camps. Lange was commissioned to photograph the events, both as people were displaced from homes and business, and later as they reported to assembly centers and were ultimately sent to the camps.

Lange’s photos painted a brutally honest picture of every phase of the internment, and were seemingly met with displeasure from the military as they were quietly impounded and archived. A 2006 book put the censored images front and center for the first time. You can see a few of the images here; Anchor Editions has published some information about the images and is offering prints with half of proceeds going to the ACLU. 

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Dorothea Lange ‘American Masters’ profile to premiere on PBS August 29

06 Aug

A PBS profile of Dorothea Lange, the photographer behind iconic images of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, is set to air later this month. American Masters – Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning will premiere on PBS stations Friday August 29th from 9-11pm. The documentary, directed and narrated by Lange’s granddaughter Dyanna Taylor, features newly discovered interviews with the photographer, remembrances from family and friends, as well as a look into her career retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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