Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures - by Sarah Meister (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Dorothea Lange (American, 1895-1965) conveyed the stories of everyday life with sharp and compassionate attention to the human condition. Her career is widely heralded, yet the connection she cultivated between words and pictures has received scant attention. In conjunction with a major exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, this catalogue provides a fresh approach to some of her most iconic images, such as White Angel Breadline (1933) and Migrant Mother (1936), as well as rarely seen works. These photographs, some reproduced in their original published form, are accompanied by contributions from a distinguished group of contemporary writers, artists, and critical thinkers who respond to the images with observations both personal and scholarly. By viewing the breadth of Lange's career and the diverse contexts in which her work appeared, we gain a more nuanced understanding of her achievement and her belief that "all photographs can be fortified by words." Includes contributions by Julie Ault, Kimberly Juanita Brown, River Encalada Bullock, Sam Contis, Jennifer A. Greenhill, Lauren Kroiz, Sally Mann, Sandra S. Phillips, Wendy Red Star, Christina Sharpe, Robert Slifkin, Rebecca Solnit, and Tess Taylor."--Publisher description

Book Synopsis

On the unique synthesis of word and image in Dorothea Lange's boldly political photography, which defined the iconography of WPA and Depression-era America

Toward the end of her life, Dorothea Lange reflected, "All photographs--not only those that are so-called 'documentary'... can be fortified by words." Though Lange's career is widely heralded, this connection between words and pictures has received scant attention. A committed social observer, Lange paid sharp attention to the human condition, conveying stories of everyday life through her photographs and the voices they drew in. Published in conjunction with the first major MoMA exhibition of Lange's in 50 years, Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures brings fresh attention to iconic works from the collection together with lesser-known photographs--from early street photography to projects on the criminal justice system. The work's complex relationships to words show Lange's interest in art's power to deliver public awareness and to connect to intimate narratives in the world.

Presenting Lange's work in its diverse contexts--photobooks, Depression-era government reports, newspapers, magazines, poems--along with the voices of contemporary artists, writers and thinkers, the book offers a nuanced understanding of Lange's career, and new means for considering words and pictures today. An introductory essay by curator Sarah Hermanson Meister is followed by sections organized according to "words" from a range of historical contexts: Lange's landmark photobook An American Exodus, Life and Aperture magazines, an illustrated guide to minimize racism in jury trials, and many more. These contexts are punctuated with original contributions from a distinguished group of contemporary writers, artists and critical thinkers, including Julie Ault, Kimberly Juanita Brown, River Encalada Bullock, Sam Contis, Jennifer Greenhill, Lauren Kroiz, Sally Mann, Sandra Phillips, Wendy Red Star, Christina Sharpe, Rebecca Solnit, Robert Slifkin and Tess Taylor.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) operated a successful San Francisco portrait studio in the 1920s before going on to work with the Resettlement Administration (and later the Farm Security Administration) documenting the hardships of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl migration. During World War II, Lange worked for the US government photographing the Japanese American internment camps, and California's wartime economy. Lange's photographs were published widely during her lifetime. Lange worked closely with curator John Szarkowski on a retrospective that opened posthumously in 1966 at the Museum of Modern Art.

Review Quotes

[Lange] saw clearly and concisely, without sentiment or polemics, but her pictures never feel detached or merely repertorial.--Vince Aletti "Photograph"

After documenting nearly a half-century of crises and the lives of those most deeply affected by them, Lange understood, possibly too well, the enormous responsibility that comes with telling any story, but especially the story of other people's struggles. Fear is an embodied knowledge, an almost physical intuition of possible outcomes learned through past experience. It can spin into paranoia, paralyze us, shock us into impassivity. But it can also be a powerful drive, as I suppose it was for Lange, who with all her "darkroom terrors" was still able to document what many others had not yet seen or wanted to see.--Valeria Luiselli "New York Review of Books"

Lange was a poet of the ordinary but imperious human need, under any conditions, for mutual contact.--Peter Schjeldahl "New Yorker"

In considering the words that provide the politicized context for Lange's work, Meister focuses primarily on what some have called the "afterlife of photographs"--that is, not the decisive moment of capture, but rather the subsequent uses of images, how they circulate and accrue new meanings, often well beyond the photographer's original intentions.--Brian Wallis "Aperture"

In Lange's photography, human ingenuity and grace triumph over the unspeakable blows of the Great Depression and other social oppression, even when hope is in short supply.--Ela Bittencourt "Hyperallergic"

Dorothea Lange's boldly political photography defined the iconography of WPA and Depression-era America.--Charles Caesar "Galerie"

[Lange's] legacy combines two fields -- art and journalism -- whose entirely separate constraints and ethics can still, at their best, change the world.--Alice Gregory "New York Times"

A bracing tribute to an astonishing artist, a woman who survived childhood polio (though not unscathed) and hauled herself and her camera across the US in its most crushing years. [...] She understood how to tune her vision to human beauty.--Ariella Budick "Financial Times"

While Lange's images have always spoken to us, her subjects weren't always able to speak for themselves. Words were perhaps important to Lange because they weren't always implicit; rather, they were hard-earned.--Jadie Stillwell "Interview"

With or without the support of words, Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), created some of the greatest images of the unsung struggles and overlooked realities of American life.--Arthur Lubow "New York Times"