What do you think?
Rate this book
Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
An expansive look at portraiture, identity, and inequality as seen in Dorothea Lange’s iconic photographs
Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) aimed to make pictures that were, in her words, “important and useful.” Her decades-long investigation of how photography could articulate people’s core values and sense of self helped to expand our current understanding of portraiture and the meaning of documentary practice.
Lange’s sensitive portraits showing the common humanity of often marginalized people were pivotal to public understanding of vast social problems in the twentieth century. Compassion guided Lange’s early portraits of Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico from the 1920s and 1930s, as well as her depictions of striking workers, migrant farmers, rural African Americans, Japanese Americans in internment camps, and the people she met while traveling in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Drawing on new research, the authors look at Lange’s roots in studio portraiture and demonstrate how her influential and widely seen photographs addressed issues of identity as well as social, economic, and racial inequalities—topics that remain as relevant for our times as they were for hers.
Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington
Exhibition
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
(November 5, 2023–March 31, 2024)
Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) aimed to make pictures that were, in her words, “important and useful.” Her decades-long investigation of how photography could articulate people’s core values and sense of self helped to expand our current understanding of portraiture and the meaning of documentary practice.
Lange’s sensitive portraits showing the common humanity of often marginalized people were pivotal to public understanding of vast social problems in the twentieth century. Compassion guided Lange’s early portraits of Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico from the 1920s and 1930s, as well as her depictions of striking workers, migrant farmers, rural African Americans, Japanese Americans in internment camps, and the people she met while traveling in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Drawing on new research, the authors look at Lange’s roots in studio portraiture and demonstrate how her influential and widely seen photographs addressed issues of identity as well as social, economic, and racial inequalities—topics that remain as relevant for our times as they were for hers.
Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington
Exhibition
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
(November 5, 2023–March 31, 2024)
216 pages, Hardcover
Published November 14, 2023
4 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 14, 2024
This book was really good! It was it is about a woman named Dorothea Lange who was a photographer and took this pictures and the pictures that are in the book are in museums and some parts of the books talks about her. I would recommend this book to anyone!
September 27, 2024
Fantastic array of images. Very insightful essays. A great combination and a very nicely presented catalogue all round.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews