Product Description

This is a chronicle of a life in photography. Detailing the adventures of Dorthea Lange, the book raises questions about the uses and effectiveness of the medium and examines her images of anxious mothers and hungry infants and sullen men waiting in long city breadlines.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130376 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Customer Reviews

Lange as Challenger of Boys Club and Social Documentarian

From Foreword:

"This book, which first appeared in 1978, is more than a personal biography of a gifted and industrious photographer; it is a work of cultural and social history as well. As such, it deals with a number of issues that have received considerable critical attention in the past two decades. One is the role of women in American culture. In that Dorothea Lange was a woman active in a professional field largely occupied by men, the story of her life is of interest; it is especially so in terms of the reemergence of feminist ideology and thought that surfaced as the book was being written. Another theme revolves around changing perceptions with regard to the documentary mode of interpreting social reality. Because Lange chose to work in this mode at a time when it was just beginning to be transformed by the popular picture magazines, her story also touches on the relationship between the documentary genre and photo-journalism.

....

For Lange...the 'visual life' (which she felt she had only just touched) involved a commitment to both the aesthetic and the humanist potentials of the medium. Perhaps a reaction to the alienated and didactic nature of much of the camera imagery of the 1980s and 1990s made her dedication to these goals appealing. Her interest in politics and social action, in women's roles in the family as professionals and workers, which are so cogently explored in this biography, have been further amplified in the numerous articles, books, and films that have issued forth in this time frame.

.... [this book] remains singular in its vivid and all-encompassing exploration of the connections between art, public service, and individual sensibility."

- excerpted from "Foreword" by Naomi Rosenblum

I really love all of Lange's work
I have purchased several books of Dorothea Lange's photography and find them very, very interesting.
Definiely worth viewing. Her life, also so interesting.

Very Informative
This book is very informative and filled with good solid facts. Any Dorthea Lange fan can appreciate this book.