Dorothea Lange: Artist/Observer

ByMark Vallen

Throughout her long working life as a photographer, Dorothea Lange produced some of the most riveting photographic images in history. She documented the great depression in the US, the internment of Japanese Americans, strikes and workers on relief, the armies of unemployed and displaced farmers who left the dustbowl states for California. An extraordinary woman with enormous talent and a social consciousness to match, she once made a comment about images that struck home for me. Even though I’m a painter, her observation rings true: Everything is propaganda for what you believe in actually. I don’t see that it could be otherwise. The harder and the more deeply you believe in anything, the more in a sense you’re a propagandist. Conviction, propaganda, faith… I don’t know, I have never been able to come to the conclusion that that’s a bad word. Quotes and photos by Lange can be found here.

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