Product Description

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) is widely recognized as one of the most influential photographers in American history. Best known for her famous photos of the Depression, including Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, Lange was active from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Now, on the 100th anniversary of her birth, this book survey's Lange's remarkable achievement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1372252 in Books
• Published on: 1996-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 132 pages

Customer Reviews

Dignity captured
A wonderful book of eighty-five, beautifully printed, Dorothea Lange photos. I think the best ones are forty-seven from the thirties when Lange was part of a small group of photographers employed by the Government to record the plight of the rural poor. Their output (now in the Library of Congress and accessible to all) was the most complete photographic record of a nation ever undertaken. Lange and Walker Evans were, depending on your point of view, the most talented of this group and you can see why by looking at her photos in this book. Keith Davis says in the introduction... "Her photographs are at once bluntly factual and deeply sympathetic. While Lange recorded innumerable scenes of destitution, she consistently evoked the resilience, faith and determination of her subjects". I think her point-of-view comes across in all the work shown in this book. After the thirties the remaining photos cover her work up to 1958.

All the photos have dated captions and many have background information about what is being shown plus the thoughts of Lange and her subjects. The back of the book has a chronology, bibliography and print source. This is a lovely record of her photographic work but if you want to know more have a look at Dorothea Lange: The Heart and Mind of a Photographer, a really comprehensive look at her photos with excellent essays which include several reproductions of spreads from her photobooks.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

BTW: This is the second book of American images I have reviewed in the last few days, the other one was a selection of photos taken over a number of years by British photographer Nick Waplington of a small town in New Mexico called Truth or Consequences (also the books title) but what a contrast, the Lange book has captions and other information, the photographer's thoughts, chronology, bibliography, sources while Waplington's book has none of this, not even page numbers! It raises questions (least to me) about how publishers regard their readers.