Analyzing Lange’s Work
Throughout the research to choose a topic that would spark my interests in terms of art, I chose to focus on artists that used their arts to focus on social pressures that exist in society and existed throughout history. As I researched, I came upon an artist Dorothea Lange. Her art focused on the way poverty affected the lives of many people, ranging from unemployment to families being broken apart, especially throughout the great depression. Many different artists have used social pressures to express a message within and throughout any form of art, Lange uses photography most of the time to do so. I chose an author such as Lange because as a person that enjoys blogging and using photography as a lens in my life to show deeper meanings to an event, a moment, a memory. Lange does the same. The pictures that she has taken as an artist have been time remnants, in which many who were not present then and are now can understand art.
Thesis: Dorothea Lange throughout history has produced art, and object that over time have shown the underlying pressures that many underwent throughout dark times in history.
While looking at Lange’s work, I came upon a couple of different objects that can tell different stories, but show similar pressures, and situations. The first work is: “Ex-slave with Long Memory, Alabama 1937. As I began to analyze this object, I saw how the different social pressures the woman in the image is presenting. Beginning with analyzing the title of the work, we can see how she is an Ex-Slave and Lange uses “Within Long memory” to add a deeper significance, a deeper meaning to what this woman has undergone. As history has taught many schools today, the times of slavery were hard, and dark times. Where people of color were sold, dehumanized, and most of all were degraded. So many families separated and so many lives lost. The emphasis on the word “Ex” gives viewers an image of what freedom could look like, how different it can look besides what textbooks, and secondary sources would say. Finally, as seeing this object I thought about how hard it was to be a free slave, socially economically, and emotionally. I wondered how a free slave would deal with the pressures that would follow they have been traumatized after being enslaved. Lange’s work allows for many to interpret and understand raw truth and not the truths schools make, society makes.
More ahead I also saw, “Farm Families wait for the ‘evacuation’ bus in Centerville California” May 9th 1942. As I saw this object, I began to think about the social pressures that also existed at the time. The conflict that America was undergoing with Japan, how America took steps to ‘cleanse’ Asian descent from America. So much history, and so much fear felt from one image. As a student who was involved with history a lot when I was younger, I remember seeing so many images of not only in America and the removal of Japanese Americans, but also in Germany the killings of many innocent Jews. This all made me think about how Lange uses her photography, uses her art to display, and in a way reveals the effects of oppression in America.
Another key important object later found of Lange, is during another tough time in America, the Great Depression. During this time, many families constantly were left without jobs, left without food, and most of all left without hope. As seen in the object, “ Migrant Mother, Nipomo California” 1936, Dorothea Lange, uses this image to portray the effect that the Great Depression has left on families. As I looked at this object, I saw the sorrowful look on this mother’s face, the rusty and dirt that she has around her body, being wrapped by her children. I began to think of how the picture is coming alive. The children turning away created this interpretation of how society turns against those who were impoverished at the time.
Each of Lange’s works have different interpretations but, all speak upon the issues that were present mid 1900’s to mid late 1900’s. The stories that each of these photos tell allows for Lange to bring to life the struggles that many had experienced during the great depression, during the Japanese American conflict that rose in America during the 1900’s. As viewers and as observers of Lange’s work, we begin to think about the emotions displayed through each image, think about what major theme we can receive from each artist’s work. Whether their art is an image, a painting, a book, a poem; Anything.
Dorothea Lange, a talented artist, uses her art to reveal and expose the societal, and oppressive circumstances that existed In America during the 1900’s. By doing this Lange allowed for so many people to see history come to life, from the perspective of those that existed in that moment in time. Lange revealed the deep emotional sides to history, how history affected the lives of those who struggled to keep up with society. She also helps reveal truths to the stories of many who were ignored and whose stories were hidden throughout history.
The many different works that Dorothea Lange created that I will be using throughout my final project are, “White Angel Breadline” San Francisco, 1933, “Damaged Child” Shacktown, Elk Grove Oklahoma 1936, “A Farm Family Boards an ‘evacuation’ bus “In Centerville, California 1942, “Pea Picker’s Home, Nipomo, California” February 1936 , and lastly, “The Japanese American owner of this Oakland grocery placed this sign on his storefront” 1942. Dorothea Lange, has allowed for so many viewers, so many historians, so many families and leaders as well to view her art work, and have a understanding. Lange’s work revealed and exposed the social pressures that so many diverse groups, different races, different people experienced at the time during and after the great depression. She uses her photography to explain and relate emotions to those viewing her work.
At the end of it all, Dorothea used her work to defy the societal oppression that existed at the time, and show the economic, emotional, and drastically horrible state America was in. Dorothea Addresses the different economic oppression that many Americans underwent. She reveals and uncovers the racial inequality, and oppression that existed toward people of color/minorities in America. This allows for her work to tell a story, a real story of the oppressive lifestyles many experienced during and after the great depression.
