Dorothea Lange Digital Archive online
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filmtwit
Desperate but not serious
I believe this was shot as part of this work and well worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8izRwVF5bp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8izRwVF5bp0
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
This quote of Lange's about the Migrant Mother sums the bond we all can strive for. It yielded possibly the most memorable photo of the awful Depression of the 30's.
"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 equality about it."
The Germans have a saying, "Eine Hand wascht die Andere." "One hand washes the other" and here was it demonstrated.
This one photo, taken in Nipomo not far from a really great steakhouse ironically, speaks volumes about that period. Cameras are magic and some photographers are better magicians than others. Such is life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange
"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 equality about it."
The Germans have a saying, "Eine Hand wascht die Andere." "One hand washes the other" and here was it demonstrated.
This one photo, taken in Nipomo not far from a really great steakhouse ironically, speaks volumes about that period. Cameras are magic and some photographers are better magicians than others. Such is life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange
Dogman
Veteran
The entire sequence of Lange's photos are available for download from the Library of Congress here: https://guides.loc.gov/migrant-mother/images
The FSA photos are considered the property of the citizens and are free to download and use without cost. I have a copy of Lange's photo along with several other FSA photos hanging on the wall of my home. Most of them took a bit of cleaning up in Lightroom but it's worth the effort for the history and art.
The FSA photos are considered the property of the citizens and are free to download and use without cost. I have a copy of Lange's photo along with several other FSA photos hanging on the wall of my home. Most of them took a bit of cleaning up in Lightroom but it's worth the effort for the history and art.
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
A copy of Migrant Mother would be nice for its quality and story. But the story is also so wrenchingly sad. Thank you for posting the link. Those old Depression Era government agencies did some great work. The main post office in my hometown had the interior painted with murals by some Depression agency. They were wonderful and I wonder if they have been painted over or maintained. We throw away so much.
