Iconic Images

Reynolda House surveys the Depression-era photographs of Dorothea Lange

Reynolda House surveys the Depressionera photographs of Dorothea Lange

With shows of works by Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams, the Reynolda House Museum of American

Art has a rich recent history of exhibiting American photography. Dorothea Lange’s America, opening September 14, is no exception.

The show surveys 30 original prints by Lange from the 1930s and ’40s, including her most iconic images documenting the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and the consequent western migration.

“What makes Lange unique is that she’s getting to know these people,” says Phil Archer, Reynolda House chief curator of the exhibit. “She’s imbuing them with individuality in the same way she did with her formal portrait subjects early in her career.” Lange began her career in San Francisco, photographing portraits for the upper classes, but after the stock market crash of 1929, she turned her lens to the faces of Americans struggling to get by.

This mix of empathy and high art is what made Roy Stryker, the economist at the head of the Farm Security Administration’s documentary photography program, realize the project’s sociological potential. “these migrant workers were not really considered citizens,” archer explains. “The mandate of the

FSA was originally to document farming practices, but Lange’s images showed the dignity and potential for citizenship among these Okies and other lost people.” Alongside Lange’s universally recognized Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, will hang White Angel Bread Line, San Francisco, one of the artist’s first street photos, and a close-up portrait of the hands of her son Dan and then-husband Maynard Dixon.

Works from 10 other Depression-era photographers will put Lange’s work into the greater context of the era, including a collection from Walker Evans, who Archer describes as,“even more of a formalist than Lange.” He spent months in Hale County,alabama, immersed among sharecroppers, documenting their work.

Dorothea Lange’s America hangs in Reynolda House’s Mary and Charlie Babcock Wing through December 30.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), White Angel Bread Line, San Francisco, 1933. © The Dorothea Lange Collection, the Oakland Museum of California. Gift of Paul S. Taylor.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), Displaced Tenant Farmers, Goodlet, Hardeman Co., Texas, 1938. © The Dorothea Lange Collection, the Oakland Museum of California. Gift of Paul S. Taylor.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), HANDS, MAYNARD and DAN DIXON, ca. 1930. © The Dorothea Lange Collection, the Oakland Museum of California. Gift of Paul S. Taylor.