Research 6 - Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Langue was born in 1895 in New Jersey and died in 1965.  Known for her work as as social documentarian during the Great Depression of 1930s her most famous photograph is titled "Migrant Mother" taken in Nipomo, California in 1936.  It was first published on 11th March 1036 in Sanfrancisco News.  It is a documentary style photograph. 

http://masters-of-photography.com/L/lange/lange_jr_butler_full.html

http://dorothealange.posterous.com/blog-post-title-4536

http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=136692

http://collections.mocp.org/detail.php?type=related&kv=7343&t=people

Another photograph I looked was titled "Death in the Doorway".  The tone of the picture is light and the body is rolled up in a striped blanket.  She titles her pictures in a kind of what you see if what you get.   The photograph again has been closely cropped - it is actually of a church and this is the doorway (copy of full picture below).  If the picture had not have been cropped the body is barely noticeable.    Although the image is titled Death in the Doorway, I did read somewhere else that no-one was sure if the body was dead.  
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5123355

Death in the Doorway

One final photograph that I looked at is titled "Father and Child" taken at a hurling match in Ireland in 1954.  There is a copy of this photograph in my folder.  The photograph reveals only the back of the father in his full length coat with pattern clearly visible.  The father has his hands behind his back and the child simply has one of his/her hands in the father's.   The photograph is very touching and the proportions of the hands the large and the small are riveting.    The photograph was published in LIFE magazine and it was one of her assignments for them titled "Irish Country People".

Photograph of Dorothea Lange

Her work has been exhibited all over the USA and Europe.  



Migrant Mother



Another of her photographs J.R. Butler taken in June 1938 fills the frame and gives the impression that Mr Butler had tanned, weathered skin.  I discovered that the photograph had been closely cropped - looking at the cropped photograph above I imagined the man to be in scruffy dirty clothes when infact he is dressed in a shirt and tie.  Her photographs were black and white so no digital manipulation would have taken place however there may would no doubt have been work in the darkroom carried out to achieve the required print?  Mr Butler was the PResident of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.  It was printed  as a gelatin silver print in 1938 and later exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.