Digital Photography: September 2020

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange (May 26, 1985 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange’s photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression. Dorothea Lange’s photographs are all black and white because during that time, traditional media that produce photos that are only black and white were primarily used. Also, most of her compositions were centered, have symmetry and texture, and give big impacts that also display sensational stories about the subject. Her camera gave a voice to people who might have been forgotten. Lange used the lens as a tool to lead a “visual life” to communicate the difficult beauty and power of what she witnessed. As a young woman, Lange’s ability to work well with people led to her success as a portrait photographer.

Untitled (Hongkong) 1958

Damaged Child 1936

Greyson, San Joaquin Valley, California 1938

Migrant Mother 1936

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange

https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/media-arts/dorothea-lange-migrant--mother/

http://100photos.time.com/photos/dorothea-lange-migrant-mother

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/55653?sov_referrer=artist&artist_id=0&page=6

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/53221?sov_referrer=artist&artist_id=3373&page=1

https://www.moma.org/artists/3373

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/46342?sov_referrer=artist&artist_id=0&page=2

Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 20, 2009) was an American amateur street photographer who lived her life in obscurity as a nanny and caregiver in the suburbs of Chicago while producing an expansive body of photographic work that became a media sensation in late 2010, nearly two years after her death. Maier photographed the urban human landscape over the course of three decades. Her preferred subjects were children, the poor, the marginalized, and the elderly. Some of them were aware of her and some were not. She also made a number of self-portraits. Vivian Maier’s art had different kinds of composition: centered; irregular; focused; abstract; etc., that gave depth to the meaning and the story of her pictures. She worked in a black-and-white documentary style until the early 1970s when she took up colour and also began to adopt a more abstract approach.