“All photographs — not only those that are so-called ‘documentary’ … can be fortified by words.” -Dorothea Lange
On Photography has already profiled Dorothea Lange and her photography. This special edition has selected materials and photos (above) from the Museum of Modern Art exhibition that is running online. Now is the time to experience her work and her words as well as a live Q&A with the exhibit’s curator and photographer Sally Mann.
Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is presenting “Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures,” an exhibition online, for free. It originally opened in mid-February and still hangs in the dark at the now-closed museum due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Lange made photographs and she also took notes and lots of them. She scribbled as she worked detailing how her subjects spoke, how they were getting by and why their lives happened the way they did.
Lange’s photos hanging in the dark inspires an online exhibition
The notes inspired this retrospective of Dorothea Lange’s photography. According to the show’s curator, Sarah Meister, it was a case of “OK, so then what?” Meister and her team have relaunched the exhibit for a weeklong run that ends May 6, 2020. Meisner goes on to say, “All photographs — not only those that are so-called ‘documentary’ … can be fortified by words.”
Dorothea Lange’s photography of the Great Depression echoes the unemployment of our world today with over 30 million people out of work because of the COVID-19 lockdown. Meisner observes, “You know, even a community of desperation is still a community.”
For the love of Lange
Dorothea Lange: Live Q&A with Sarah Meister and Sally Mann
There is a lot more available at this time on NPR and at MoMA.
Read more profiles of inspirational photographers in On Photography.
