This Historical Fiction book retraces the life of the Dorothea Lange, one of the first female commercial photographers. She is credited with the skill to see her subjects both as individuals and as representatives of larger issues. She is best known for her iconic photo, shown below, "Migrant Mother". Her name was Florence Thompson, shown with her 3 children, who were desitute, homeless and hungry. The photo was taken in Nipomo CA in 1936. Dorothea Lange captures the Great Depression, with this iconic photo.
In 1918, after working as a photographer's assistant in NJ, Dorothea Lange dreams of Paris but settles on San Francisco. She is determined to make a living as a portrait photographer. Against the backdrop of a waning War, Spanish Flu, social and political unrest, Lange perseveres with unwaivering determination.
The Author does an excellent job telling a complicated story, Lange was stricken with polio as a young child and consequently walked with a limp. which she describes as a "crippled foot." Its a story of unwaivering friendship between 2 lost souls, Dorothea and her Asian American friend, Caroline Lee, who suffered daily from bigotry and vile racial abuse. And her marriage to artist Maynard Dixon, who was brilliant but, troubled.
Caroline Lee provides the connections, to help Dorothea-or Dorrie meet a colorful 'A List' of characters, including Ansel Adams, Maynard Dixon, Frida Kahlo and DH Lawrence. She then joins a camera club and an investor takes an interest in her work. He provides financial support, and she opens a portrait studio, which caters to the rich and famous.
Lange resolved to take photos of the rich and famous, because they paid the bills. As the depression closed in on San Fransisco, she was forced to close the studio. She then turned to the 'world' at large and began to walk the streets to focus her attention on the poor, stating, "she wanted to see faces" and to demonstrate the power of an image to document the poverty and despair of the depression.
Lange's notoreity and willingness to walk the streets in ravaged areas, gained attention with the Federal Government. They commissioned her as well as other photographer's to take 80,000 photographs for the Resettlement Administration between 1935 and 1944. The intention was to show the plight of starving Americans, living in the drought ravaged area, known as the Dust Bowl.
Other Books By Jazmin Darznik:
Song of a Captive Bird 2018
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