Famous Photographers Series - Part 5 - Dorothea Lange
Famous Photographers Series - Part 5 - Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange is revered as one of America's great photographers, having captured the desolation and hardships of the Oklahoma Dustbowl migrants. She has been considered one of America's greatest documentary photographers. Her iconic photo of "Migrant Mother" created visual knowledge of their plight as much as John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath", the movie of the same name starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad adapted from the novel, Woody Guthries songs about the era and the movie "Bound for Glory" about Guthrie's travelling to be with the Okies.
Wikipedia provides this information (and more) about Lange, and about her iconic photo:
Dorothea Lange (May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography.[1]
Working for the Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration, they brought the plight of the poor and forgotten – particularly sharecroppers, displaced farm families, and migrant workers – to public attention. Distributed free to newspapers across the country, her poignant images became icons of the era.
One of Lange's most recognized works is titled Migrant Mother.[11] The woman in the photo is Florence Owens Thompson. In 1960, Lange spoke about her experience taking the photograph:
"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it." [12]
After Lange returned home, she told the editor of a San Francisco newspaper about conditions at the camp and provided him with two of her photos. The editor informed federal authorities and published an article that included the photos. As a result, the government rushed aid to the camp to prevent starvation.[13]
Here are 40 of Lange's photos about the depression , a few general photos, and then her experience at Manzanar (Intern camp for Japanese Americans during WWII). It's interesting to me that Manzanar was visited and depicted in photos by other famous photographers as well, as I have already displayed in a previous photo-essay about Ansel Adams.
1. Her most famous photo - Migrant Mother
2. A "Dustbowl" farm - it's patently obvious why the "Okies" had to leave.
3. Drought-striken farmer and his family near Muoskoga, Oklahoma
4. On the road away - their car broke down
5. Resting along the way
6. Having just reached California, their car broke down as well.
7.
8.
9. Setting out housekeeping in a tent
10. For me, spending a night in a tent was fun. For them, it was a necessity.
11. Waiting for the crops to mature.
12.
13. Finally, in the fields
14. Pulling carrots
15. Cabbage cutting
16.
17. The faces of a hard life
18. Not the kind of life kids should have had
19. Migrant workers camp - Marysville, California
20. This boy had dysentery
21. Dysentery was no surprise when this was their water supply
22. Moving on to find work
23. This photo makes me think of the words of a Woody Guthrie song:
"Times are gettin' hard, boys. Money's gettin' scarce. Times don't get no better boys, time to leave this place. Take my true love by the hand, lead her through the town. Say goodbye to everyone, goodbye to everyone."
24. Entrance to a Farm Security Administration camp. In the movie "The Grapes of Wrath" they were shown to be a much better place for the migrants to live.
25. Building a home around the tent. The floor is there, and when the outer walls and roof are finished, the tent will be gone.
26. Lincoln Bench School. The kids can still get an education.
27.
28.
29. Better water than before
30. A few random photos
31.
32.
33. When there's no work needed, sometimes there's nowhere to go.
34. Hard times take their toll.
35. A number of books with her photographs of those times have been produced. This photo is also an icon. Those men are waiting to be called to work, but the one facing us knows it is a useless effort.
36. A random photo, the "Crossroads Store".
37. Finishing with Manzanar - WWII Internment Camp for Japanese Americans
38. Saying allegiance to the AMERICAN flag.
39. Baseball. Isn't that an AMERICAN sport?
40. And finally, on the subject of WWII Internment Camps, what does THIS make you think of?
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Hopefully that was not too depressing for some. My next Famous Photographers series will be the photos of American Indians by Roland Reed, with commentary on the photos by Kavika.
EXELENT series.
There's a lot of events in history I'm glad I wasn't around to experience, the dust bowl ranks right up there.
Thanks, I don't know when or even if I will continue with this series, but as you delve back into the Photography and Art forum you will find more than 20 of them.
This photo was mixed into a series of Ansel Adams photos, and since I knew he spent time at Manzanar, a WWII internment camp for Japanese Americans, I asssumed it was his photo and included it in my Ansel Adams photo essay. Only today did I discover that in fact it was taken by Dorothea Lange.
My comment for that photo on the Adams essay, which still applies, was:
It breaks my heart to see [a photo like this], because in my mind I put myself in their shoes. Can you imagine the feelings of the Japanese American who had to sell his business (probably to a predator who paid him half of what it was worth, if that much), and to see that "I AM AN AMERICAN" sign is absolutely devestating and if it doesn't bring tears to your eyes, nothing will. I'm a Canadian, and it brought tears to my eyes every time I looked at it.
Simply a stunning series of photos...
The photos of the interment camps are quite sobering.
This is a photo of a sign directing people to the Japanese village on Terminal Island Ca. Prior to WWII Terminal Island was home to around 3500 Japanese who have helped develop the fishing industry in Southern CA. After December 7, 1941 all of the Japanese were removed to interment camps, many to Manzanar...
They didn't bomb Pearl Harbour, but they paid the price because of their skin.
Yes they did Buzz. And many that joined the military paid with their lives.
Times sure were tough. Brought back a lot of memories, maybe, not as late as these, but memories.
Daddy built us a really nice cozy home in a small paper mill town for $700. When work played out during the Depression we had to leave our home. My precious sister and I stayed with Grandma and she and Daddy went looking for work across the lake in N.O. When we moved there it was plain out awful living in a four room house with my uncle and aunt with their four children.
Anyway, I swear, I never heard my Mother and Daddy complain. They were proud people and taught us so much. They never asked for anything, but worked hard.
I really appreciate the photos you presented.
One of the first things I heard in my beginning photography class was that if one had to explain an image, then it wasn't a successful image. (shout out to Prof. Larry Travis)
I didn't fully understand the meaning behind the words until I studied the work of Dorthea Lange in my intermediate class. One can read about that time period, and even hear first hand accounts (i.e. from my grandmother), but one look at the iconic 'Migrant Mother' image, and no explanation was necessary. The entire series was powerful beyond belief.
Thanks Buzz for giving Dorthea Lange the attention she deserves.
You took a photography class? Why don't you post any photographs on the Creative Arts group?