MARCH -- WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH -- FEATURING DOROTHEA LANGE'S FOLK PHOTOGRAPHS

Dorthea Lange

Library of Congress

Dorothea Lange began her career as a documentary photographer by signing on with the federal Resettlement Administration that eventually became the Farm Administration/Office of War Information. Her paid position, as it was for many other artists, was created by President Franklin Roosevelt to get people back to work during the Great depression that began in 1929 and lasted until 1941 when WWII began.


Her main assignment was to record the California migrants that were poring into the state looking for work. Depression unemployment figures reached a high of 25 percent in the U.S. In 1929, when the depression began,  60 percent of the country's wealth was held by the top 1 percent of the population. Sound familiar?

Florence Thompson with two of her seven children in a California migrant camp
Dorothea Lange -- Library of Congress

Dorothea was soon photographing folks that were the homeless and unemployed. The above 1936 photograph  known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and some of her children in a California migrant camp.

In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience:

"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 a quality about it."

( From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).

Mississippi Delta Children -- 1936
Dorthea Lange -- Library of Congress

Dorthea continued working as a photographer through the Depression taking photos mainly in the southern and the western parts of the country. Her focus continued to be on the folks that suffered economically or for other injustices. 

GRANDMOTHER WITH HER HAND MADE QUILT -- 1936
Dorthea Lange --Library of Congress

Ms Lange's ability to capture the toughness of these folks that were trying to survive is amazing. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1960 for her excellency in photography.

EX-TENANT FARMER ON RELIEF IN IMPERIAL VALLEY CALIFORNIA -- 1937
Library of Congress
Dorthea Lange

In the photo above Dorthea captures determination and dignity in the face of an ex-tenant farmer. The emotions that she knew to focus on in her photos is touching.

Japanese children at a California public school participating in a pledge to the flag -- 1941
Dorothea Lange -- Library of Congress

In 1942 some of the Japanese children in the above photograph would in all likelihood be put into Japanese Internment camps with their families. Contradictory to this possibility was their sincerity of pledging to the American flag while their faces glowed in this Lange photo of 1941. 

Dorothea was not just a photographer recording people's  plights during the Depression -- she was gathering up the emotions of the folks that were the victims of social and economic injustices. The folks spoke back to her through her photographs releasing bold emotions in the face of adversity.

Dorothea Lange:  May 26, 1895 -- October 11, 1965 

this is a re-post from my 4/22/11 blog
 photos from Library of Congress archives


RESOURCES

Wikipedia Biography

Women Come To The Front

Library of Congress