「Look at the Picture and Talk about the Painting」Dorothea Lange’s Lens: The Faint Light of Life in Suffering

Fate seemed to be unfair to her from the very beginning, but Dorothea Lange never gave in. At the age of seven, she was stricken with polio and left with a lifelong disability. This unique experience enabled her to empathize more deeply with the struggles of marginalized groups and endowed her camera with the power to penetrate through suffering.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression swept across the United States, and the social disintegration and survival crisis were shocking. Lange resolutely gave up her stable career in a photo studio, shouldered her camera and walked into the streets and alleys, using her lens to confront these harsh realities directly.

Lange focused on emotions with minimalist composition, binding the individual’s struggle to the background of the times. The melancholy yet resilient gaze of the mother in “Migrant Mother”, the tightly clasped hands of the worker in “White Angel Bread Line”, and the attentive look of the child in “The children of the evicted hired farmers” are not isolated expressions of suffering, but rather the persistence of individuals in seeking the value of survival even in dire straits. Lange’s lens always respected the dignity of the individual. The displaced were never symbols of poverty, but rather lives with personality and warmth. After “Migrant Mother” was published, the government rushed to deliver relief food, allowing countless families in distress to catch their breath.

Lange’s works prove that photography is not merely an artistic record but also a social action that bears moral responsibility. In the face of suffering and injustice, the persistence and empathy of the camera lens will eventually become a force that awakens conscience and promotes progress.

The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I’ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.