Dorothea Lange

by Acker, Kerry

• ISBN13: 9780791074602
• ISBN10: 0791074609
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: Facts on File

Summary

Dorothea Lange's photographs are some of the most widely recognized images in American photography. Her most famous work, "Migrant Mother," became a symbol of the Great Depression; her images of African-American tenant farmers in the South, desperate Dust Bowl families, and the Japanese-American internment of World War II are remarkable for their honesty, their empathy, and their humanity. Stricken with polio as a child, Lange channeled her feelings of "outsiderness" into her work. At a time when few women had a career of any kind, she ran a highly successful portrait studio. What's more, Lange worked ceaselessly to capture just the "right" angles of the face and the many nuances of human facial expression, so that the face of her subject seemed to come alive. Through her camera lens, Lange proved that everyday human life is a thing worth seeing, a thing worth capturing. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 8
The Supreme Humanist	p. 12
The Outsider 1895-1913	p. 20
Learning the Craft 1913-1918	p. 32
Portrait Photographer 1918-1929	p. 44
Documentary Photographer 1929-1935	p. 58
Documenting the Depression 1935-1940	p. 76
Minorities and the War 1940-1956	p. 100
Grandmother and World Traveler 1956-1965	p. 110
Chronology	p. 118
Works by Dorothea Lange	p. 122
Bibliography	p. 123
Further Reading	p. 124
Index	p. 126
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Dorothea Lange's photographs record the effect of the Great Depression on invisible Americans. Her studies of poor migrant workers during their search for day labor in the Southwest drew much-needed attention to their plight, and her images of the Japanese-American Internment of World War II describe marginalization more meaningfully than words ever could.