While I was growing up, I had a lot of artistic influences. One of my aunts was attending art classes in college and wanted to be an art teacher and the other was an english teacher that loved photography and taking photos. Because of these two women, I grew up seeing many different artists and came to appreciate quite a few of them. One of the artist that my brilliant aunt introduced me to was Dorothea Lange. Lange was one of her favorites so it is no wonder she quickly became one of mine as well.
Here are some of my personal favorites photographs by Lange:
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| Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California by Dorothea Lange |
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| Ex-Slave with Long Memory, Alabama by Dorothea Lange |
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| J.R. Butler, President of the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union, Memphis Tennessee by Dorothea Lange |
Dorothea Lange was one of America's greatest photographers. She attended the New York Training School for Teachers but quickly decided she wanted to be a photographer and attended photography courses at Columbia University in New York. In 1919 she set up a portrait studio but decided to experiment with landscape and plant photography which she found unsatisfactory. She then decided to get out of her studio and start taking pictures of real life issues such as the effects of the economic decline that was happening during her career. Lange took many photos of people going through hard times during most of her career and brought a lot of social problems to light. Lange was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1941 and took photographs all over the world. Her works influenced the development of documentary photography. Lange's photographs can be found in many museums and exhibits all over the world including in The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts and has received induction into the California Hall of Fame.
What does she do?
Lange took beautiful photographs of mankind and the struggles they were facing all over the world during her life time. She is well known for her photographs of the Great Depression and her studies of homeless people. Lange didn't just take photos of people effected by the Great Depression though, she also took photos of the evacuation of Japanese Americans to relocation camps after Pearl Harbor, the death of Monticello, California and the displacement of its residents by the damming of Putah Creek to form Lake Berryessa and many other events that effected humans. Lange's photographs made such an impact during her time because they brought out the plight of the poor and forgotten and brought hard times to the public's attention. Her images became icons of the era. Lange took photos to try and document the things that were happening around her and her images are beautiful.
Why she inspires me?
This artists inspires me because she wasn't afraid to take photos of things a lot of people were dismissing. She wasn't going to sugar-coat the bad things happening, she was going to document them so everyone could see them. This is something I hope I am willing to do. I hope my artwork will make an impact and that someday I too will be able to document the things happening around me for future generations to see and to highlight the fact that life is a very messy, sad but beautiful thing.
More of her works can be found here: http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=3373
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| Child and Her Mother, Wapato, Yakima Valley, Washington by Dorothea Lange |
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| One Nation, Indivisible, San Francisco by Dorothea Lange |
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| Union Square, New York by Dorothea Lange |
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