Ashleigh Ray Mrs. Tookey Digital Photography 1 Period 5 1 June 2014 Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange was one of the most well-known documentary photographers of the 20 th century. She was famous for her photos humanizing the Great Depression. She had been a studio photographer but turned her eye to the people when the Great Depression hit in the 1930s. Afterwards, she also did some photos of Japanese Americans during World War 2. Throughout her life, she photographed people from some of the most somber parts of history. There were two tragic events in her early life that had a big impact on her. The first was when she was seven years old and contracted polio. It severely weakened her right leg and gave her an ever-lasting limp. "It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me and humiliated me. I've never gotten over it, and I am aware of the force and power of it," said Lange herself once when referring to her leg. The other occasion was when she was 12 and her parents got divorced. After some time, she blamed her dad and decided to take her mother s maiden name of Lange. Art was a large part of her childhood and since she was not real big on academics in high school, she was influenced to focus on photography. She got married in 1920 and had two sons. She then got remarried in 1935. Her and her second husband worked together, traveling a lot, detailing poverty in the country, her with photography and him with interviews and information. She was the first female to be presented the Guggenheim fellowship, which is a
grant to people "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts" (Wikipedia, Guggenheim Fellowship). While she had many accomplishments in her professional life, she was often ill and fought various health problems the last two decades of her life. She died at 70 from esophageal cancer. Some people saw her life as painful and others saw it as triumphant, while yet others saw it as a combination of both. Her motivation and goal was to try and shed light on the wrongs in the world and make people see enough to want to change things. She sometimes got irritated when this didn t happen, but her work was still remembered and helped shape the future of documentary photographers. Her most famous picture is the Migrant Mother. The people in it are Florence Owens Thompson and her two children in 1936 in California. Dorothea went up to the starving mother without knowing what drove her. Florence had just sold the tires from her car to buy food for her and her children. She was living in a lean-to with her children surrounding her. When Dorothea asked permission to take the pictures, Florence agreed, thinking that the pictures might help her family. I personally love this picture; I think that it really portrays the emotion and the desperation and the overall exhaustion and worry of the mother. Another powerful picture taken by Lange, also in the same series as the Migrant Mother was the Damaged Child photo. This was a seven-year-old girl that was said by Dorothea to be possibly retarded as well as abused. The defiant, shadowed eyes and rough clothing attest to the hardships this girl was going through. The title of the picture is fitting for the girl s state of mind at that time in her life. This picture is especially touching to me because this is a small child, alone, with a lack of hope but still a fighting fire to her eyes. I don t
think any human being, much less a child, should be in that position, with such a hardened view on things. I can understand why Lange would want to make people aware of this. The last picture I chose to show is a photo taken of three kids in 1939. I chose to show this as one of the three because the kids actually have hope and happiness in their eyes. It just goes to show that not everything was dark and dreary during this time. Leave it to kids to have a smile on their faces even in the worst of times. They are happy, they are together, there is hope for them. That is one thing that I love about Dorothea Lange s photos in general. I feel like she genuinely tries to capture the real-life situations, feelings, and importance of the people she photographs. Her goal was to open people s eyes to the things happening in the world, and I think that with the types of pictures she took, she accomplished that goal. On the other hand, some of her pictures seemed a bit drab because I didn t see the focus or the message to them. That does not mean that there isn t a message, just that I don t see it. That is the only negative I was able to find regarding her photography. I think that Dorothea Lange viewed life as an opportunity to accomplish good. She strived to take meaningful pictures that send a message. She wanted to call people to action, to try to get them to do something about what was happening. I like pictures that have meaning, that tell a story, that show emotion and Lange has done that.
Bibliography Dorothea Lange. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dorothea_lange>. "Dorothea Lange." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 01 June 2014. "The Photographs of Dorothea Lange." The Photographs of Dorothea Lange. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2014. <http://www.annedarlingphotography.com/photographs-of-dorothealange.html> "Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection: An Overview." Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection: An Overview (Library of Congress). N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2014. <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html>. "Manila Bulletin." Manila Bulletin. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2014. <http://mbpictureperfect.com/article.php?id=553&cid=5&ppid=7>.. "Dorothea Lange Photography Phaidon Store." Phaidon. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2014. <http://www.phaidon.com/store/photography/dorothea-lange-9780714863573/>. "The Power of Dorothea Lange's Pictures." The Power of Dorothea Lange's Pictures. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2014. <http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/lange/aa_lange_power_2_e.html>. Meltzer, Milton. New York: First Printing, 1978. Print.
Dorothea Lange Photos 1) Dorothea Lange's famous photograph, "Migrant Mother" 1936 2) Dorothea Lange Damaged Child 1936 3) Lighthearted kids in Merrill Farm security administration mobile camp for migratory farm labor, Klamath County, Oregon, 1939
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