Women's Work

1st December 2009

Post with 1 note

Dorothea Lange

When Dorothea Lange graduated high school she decided that she wanted to be a photographer even though she had never photographed before.  According to AMERICANSUBURB X, she only took one college photography course and did not complete most of the assignments.  Lange became an apprentice for a photography studio where she learned photographic techniques before setting out on her own.  She moved to California in 1918 and opened a portrait studio.  With the onset of the Great Depression she began to photograph real world subjects and became employed by the Resettlement Administration later to become the Farm Security Association. In an essay on Lange, Therese Thau Heyman describes the Farm Security Association as a way to “ease rural poverty.”  Employment by the FSA lead Lange to her most well known subjects, which were migrant workers and minorities in America.

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, March 1936

One of her most famous photographs is entitled “Migrant Mother.”  This photograph depicts the everyday strain of a migrant family in the 1940s.  Most migrant families were poor and struggled to attain food for their families.  The figures in the photograph are dirty and appear worn out aiding in the idea of struggling to survive.  Since Lange was up close to her subjects the picture seems more personal than if she had been further away.  The woman wears her worry on her face.  The children resting on each of her shoulders gives the photograph a greater sense of despair because the woman is not only concerned for herself but also for her children.  Another reason for the added despair is that it is evident that the children feel it as well.  Their everyday hardships that they must endure, although not physically shown, are expressed in the photograph.

Dorothea Lange, Against the Wall, San Francisco, 1934

Lange’s photograph entitled “Against the Wall” is a powerful photo of a man whose life is not going how he wants it to.  The positioning of his body conveys a sense of defeat.  The upside down wheelbarrow aids in this idea of something going wrong because the wheelbarrow is literally not how it is supposed to be.  The framing creates the illusion that he is very small, therefore, a seemingly insignificant piece of the world yet he is the focus of the photograph.  The viewer is drawn to him and his misery.

Dorothea Lange, Amana, a rainy Sunday morning after church and after funeral, Iowa, 1941

Another powerful photograph that is not so typical of Lange’s work is entitled “Amana, a rainy Sunday morning after church and after funeral.”  The figures in the photograph stretch across the frame creating distinct layers.  There is the sky and the trees, the living, and the dead.  The close proximity of the living people with the tombstones indicates the connection between life and death.  Also, the shape of the people holding their umbrellas mimic that of the tombstones shape, suggesting that they will eventually be reduced to a marker of their life.  As you look across the photograph less of the bodies are seen until only the umbrella is visible.  This could be interpreted as the people walking to their grave.  Lange has a way of capturing despair and making it mesmerizing and beautiful.

Dorothea Lange’s photographs can currently be accessed in the National Archives.

- - Zari Williams-Yee