#MakePortraits: Dorothea Lange

“What is it in the end? It is a mounted piece of paper with a photographic silver image on it. But in it there is an element which you can’t call other than an act of love. That is the tremendous motivation behind it. And you give it. Not to a person, you give it to the world, to your world…an act of love – that’s the deepest thing behind it….The audience, the recipient of it, gives that back.”

— Dorothea Lange

When I first undertook this weekly mission to learn about, study and consider the perspectives of the great portrait photographers, I had to keep myself from leading with Dorothea Lange. Her work has deeply influenced my own in countless ways.

Most notably, I referenced her portraits for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression while preparing for shooting Untouchable on my first trip to India.

Though I poured over her work, I didn't know much about the woman behind the photographs.

On a website dedicated to the 2011 book "Daring to Look", author Anne Whiston Spirn notes that Dorothea Lange was a storyteller above, possibly above all else.

Lange held up her mirror to American society that we might see who we were, how we came to be, and what we were in the process of becoming. Her words and photographs speak powerfully to the present, for the dynamics she saw and recorded are still shaping American lives and landscapes. 

Maybe that's why I'm so drawn to her portraits, because they're connected to a story. Or maybe it's because so much of her work lives at the intersection I feel my work lives in: that place where documentary, portraiture and exploration of self collide.

“Every image [the photographer] sees, every photograph he takes, becomes in a sense a self-portrait. The portrait is made more meaningful by intimacy - an intimacy shared not only by the photographer with his subject but by the audience.”

— Dorothea Lange

Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California

Colored family from near Houston, Texas. Been in California for two years. Husband came first, later sent for wife and two children, who traveled by bus (on licensed car, fare six dollars, traveling night and day). Husband now on Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Visalia, California. Children of Mineral King Cooperative Farm.

Migrant agricultural labor family. Tenant farmer with six children, refugees from Texas, near Wasco, California. "People just can't make it back there with drought, hailstorms, windstorms, duststorms, insects. They'll all be here in another year or two. People exist here and they can't do that there. You can make it here if you sleep late and eat little, but it's pretty tough--there's so many people."

Women in auto camp for migrant citrus workers. Tulare County, California.

Weighing baled cotton as it leaves the gin. Kaweah Delta Cooperative gin, Tulare County, California.

Near Manteca, California. Formerly rehabilitation clients, now operating own farm under Tenant Purchase Act. A year and a half ahead on their payments. Family labor harvesting milo maize. Average loan for purchase of farm and improvements in San Joaquin County is seven thousand four hundred and sixty-five dollars.

Near Strathmore, California. From Wyoming and Missouri, eight years in California working in lemons. "It's easy for us because we haven't got a bunch of kids to get drug around."

Part of family arrived the night before from Rockwell, Texas. Picked their way across the country. Encamped on the river bottom. Near Holtville. Imperial Valley, California.

Pea picker camp. This family had been farm owners in Oklahoma, lost their farm and for the last three years "have been draggin' our children around California. We're a have-to case." Calipatria, Imperial Valley, California.

Mexican girl who picks peas for the eastern market. Imperial Valley, California.

On U.S. 99. Near Brawley, Imperial County. Homeless mother and youngest child of seven walking the highway from Phoenix, Arizona where they picked cotton. Bound for San Diego, where the father hopes to get on relief "because he once lived there."

In a carrot pullers' camp near Holtville, Imperial Valley, California. Woman from Broken Row [sic], Oklahoma.

In a carrot puller' camp near Holtville, Imperial Valley, California. Migratory laborers from Texas, packing up to leave camp because of work shortage. "Don't take any pictures of us. We don't want any truck with Mr. Hearst."

Arkansas girl in migrant camp near Greenfield, Salinas Valley, California. This is an Arkansawyers auto camp, filled almost completely with Arkansawyers recently in California. Rent ten dollars per month for one room, iron bed, electric light. (This community is subject of a study by Regional Office, BAE, Land Utilization Division, Berkely, California)

Greenfield, Salinas Valley, California. An Arkansawyers auto camp filled almost completely with migrants from Arkansas. Rent ten dollars a month for one room, iron bed, electricity. Rough board walls with cracks. This community is subject of a study by BAE Regional Office, Berkeley, California.

Migrant woman from Arkansas living in contractor's camp near Westley, California. She would prefer to live in a government camp, but the contractor system prevents, because of control over allocations of work.

Migrant woman from Arkansas living in contractor's camp near Westley, California.

Washington, Yakima Valley, near Wapato. Rural rehabilitation client (Farm Security Administration). Portrait of Chris Adolf. "My father made me work. That was his mistake, he made me work too hard. I learned about farming but nothing out of the books."

During the cotton strike, the father, a striking picker, has left his wife and child in the car while he applies to the Farm Security Administration for an emergency food grant. Shafter, California.

Nebraska farmer come to pick peas. Near Calipatria, California.

So, if this notion of portraiture as self portraiture is true (and, confession, this is a belief I've always held), then what does the work of Dorothea Lange reveal about the artist? Along the way to publishing this entry, I've learned a few things that seem to answer this question.

Lange suffered a bout with polio at age 7 that left her crippled. This was something she came to be quite thankful for as she reflected on her life & career:

“[It] was the most important thing that happened to me, and formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me and humiliated me,”

The early days of her career were spent apprenticing for the likes of Arnold Genthe. Then, she opened a portrait studio in San Francisco around 1919. From that studio she honed her craft as a portraitist, photographing the well-to-do of the city. 

It wasn't until the onset of the Great Depression that Lange came to public consciousness. Her work (above) for the Farm Securities Administration, is regarded as some of the most important by an American photographer in history. She has been the subject of countless books and exhibitions.

During an interview with NPR, author Linda Gordon who wrote the biography Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits noted how the disassociation between the story and the image really upset Lange. Because the images were owned by the Federal Government, the images were freely distributed and as the images became icons of an era, they suffered from anonymity.

“One of the reasons that she was such a good portrait photographer is that she had an extraordinary power to connect with all sorts of people, to draw them out.”

— Linda Gordon

Lange, knowing that people stiffened in front of the camera, actually emphasized her disability at times, slowing the whole process down, in an effort to make the subjects of her photos more comfortable.

The style of her work has been characterized as 'detached documentary'. But, these little details seem to betray this notion in profound ways. By diving deeper into her own brokenness, Lange was able to connect with the people of a broken nation & produce works so powerful that they stand as the definitive works of an era. 

If you're interested in learning more about Dorothea Lange, you can watch the Jim Leher News Hour segment featuring Linda Gordon or peruse Lange's work on the Library of Congress website.