Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona, 1940
Migrant Mother, Nipomo, Cal. 1936
Some background: In 1918 she opened a portrait studio in San Francisco, but when the Great Depression hit, she abandoned her formal work for the street. By 1933 she quit her commercial work entirely, and focused on taking photos of the “forgotten man” -
Later, as the Depression gnawed through the country, she took photographs revealing rural poverty – the exploitation of migrant laborers and sharecroppers.
She had this pinned to her darkroom door:
The contemplation of things as they are,
without substitution or imposture,
without error or confusion,
is in itself a nobler thing
than a whole harvest of invention.
- Sir Francis Bacon
16 comments:
Aren't those captivating portraits! I love the angularity of the arms in both. Your post, wonderfully written, taught me something this early morning hour. I'll research her work to see more. Thanks!
I'm not really one of those photographers who has a laundry list of favorites who share my same passion, but she is one of my favorites!
I wish that I could capture souls in the way that she was able to......
I am so inclined to say that, the proverb, "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words", was derived from her influential portraits!
FYI - I know its not, but I'm just saying...hehe
They are beautiful. What a talent she has!
Love the work too...great quote.
What an amazing expression she captured (second photo).
I had never heard of Dorothea Lang, but I am now very interested in seeing more of her work. Thank you for sharing these.
i'm so glad you all like her! she was so balsy - you can see how she got more and more bold as time went on.
She was a genius.
Incredible and timeless.
Cheers to you : )
i love: your blog.
thanks for the nice words on mine, and i too lost a friend who was the dearest to me recently. his name was mark...he's all over my blog.
thanks Paul, I commented on yours - it's great!
And Patti, I'm sorry to hear about your friend Mark. I know how painful that can be. Looking forward to reading more from you, I'm glad I stumbled across your blog : )
it's odd how the woman looks so beautiful, and clearly not by today's standards of beauty.
A wonderful post. I also think the Bacon quotation is an admirable discription of what it's like to truly be sober. Thanks for the link.
If you do a search for "Florence Owens Thompson" you will find the other five photographs Dorothea Lang took of her. Out of the six, the one you posted is my favorite.
When I was in Chile in 2006, I wrote a paper on the photo journalist Elliot Erwit. One of my favorite photographs is of the famous Japanese author Yukio Mishima. In the photograph, Mishima stands by his desk while gripping the samaurai sword resting on his desk. He is in excellent physical shape, clearly a man who obsessively takes care of his body. He has books scattered throughout the entire room--I used this detail in my paper to demonstrate the Mishima was a man who read much and with a crazy passion. This also portrays a man who is distanced from the world, lost in his own mind.
What makes the photograph so amazing is that it stands as a prelude to the event that unfolded only moments after Erwit left the author's study. Mishima killed himself with the Samaurai sword (harakiri) he was gripping at the time of the author's last photograph.
For your enjoyment, I have included an excerpt of the section of my paper on Erwit that dealt with Mishima. I was describing Erwit's involvement in the assimilation of imressionist art and photo journalism. --> I don't know if that's actually accurate, but I believed it back then <----
"La ultima foto tomado del famoso autor Japonés Yukio Mishima sirve como ejemplo del asimilación del fotoperiodismo y el arte impresionista. En la fotografía Mishima, un hombre en buen condición físico, aguanta una espada de samurai sobre su mesa de escritura a dentro de su estudio. Esta foto dice mucho artísticamente del hombre. Primero, aunque Mishima se cuidaba el cuerpo físico—la fotografía demuestra sus músculos y cuerpo atlético—su estudio es un desastre. Hay libros tirados por todo el cuarto sin algún orden. Esto también puedo demostrar que Mishima era un hombre que leía mucho y con fiera. Pero también puede simbolar un hombre alejado del mundo exterior, un hombre que ya está perdido adentro de su mente. Irónicamente, la espada que el autor aguanta en la foto es la misma espalda que utilizó para hacerse harakiri momentos después de que se tomo la foto."
One of my favorite artistic descriptions of "photography" comes from the meaning of the word. 'Photography' means the act of "drawing with light." (pictures are recorded by the act of capturing light).
whoaaa omy that's a long comment. that's not a comment, that's a drafted statement! wowza. i'm off to check out this guy you loved.
I love that quote, very cool.
That was beautiful. I've long admired her work, but I've never read anything about her background. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, absolutely, wow.
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