Dorothea Langue: A Bio

Susan Brannon

27 November 2011

Dorothea Langue: Documentary Photography or Photojournalism?

“One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.”

“Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion... the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.”

Dorothea Langue

Dorothea Langue is known for her work during the great depression era while working for the Farm Security.  She was a documentary and photojournalist photographer.  She was born on May 26, 1895 and dies October 11, 1965.  She studied photography at Columbia University and apprenticed in several New York photography studios, later she moved to San Francisco and opened a portrait studio.  During the depression, she went from her studio and watching the people in the street below her, to photographing the people in the street photographing the unemployed and homeless, “combing those who paid and those who did not”.  Later, she toured the field with her husband who was gathering economic data for the government. 

Many of the images she took became public domain because of her work for the Farm Security.  Some of her images were “off hours” and became copyrighted to her name.  Her images were to bolster support for the establishment of migrant camps.  

Dorothea used a 4 x 5 Graflex D camera for most of her shots. She felt that the camera, “Teaches people how to see without a camera” Langue worked a lot by using her instincts, “to find out later how right your instincts were, if you followed all the influences that were brought to bear on you while you were working in a region.…It did happen more than once that we unearthed and discovered what had been either neglected, or not known, in various parts of the country, things that no one else seemed to have observed in particular, yet things that were too important not to make a point of.”

In the 1940’s she documented the forced relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps.  In the 1950’s and 1960’s she produced photographic essays on Ireland, Asia, Egypt and the post-war boom in California. 

Dorothea Langue interacted with her subjects, in order to capture a realistic, honest and truthful image.  Langue was a patient photographer, sticking around, talking to the people, asking them questions, “where are you from?” remaining there, and sitting on the ground with them.  She listened to the people that she photographed and tried to remember what they said so later when she went to her car, she could write down what they said.  She would use their quotes with the images captions, she liked “using the words that came directly from the people’s mouths”.  By the end of 1939 she had set the standard for photography captions.

While she was working for the government, they wanted images of a certain type, framing the subject to tell the story, while in the darkroom removing the “negatives” like brushing away a thumb, lightening some areas, darkening others and moving a cow skull to show evidence of a drought. 

Dorothea Langue had a somewhat mystical approach to the problem of authenticity. She believed that through her camera she could see into the psyches of her subjects, and that by penetrating beneath a surface she could get at a truth that was deeper, more truthful, than were facts available at first glance. Taken literally, her notion that she had a kind of X- ray vision seems to absurd, but is a way of saying something about the role of documentary photography.

The debate about authenticity and objectivity may never be solved. It continues today whether the subject is literature or history or journalism or photography. Unfortunately today many people continue to worry more about whether a photographer has asked a subject to take off his hat or look toward her child than about whether the photographer’s interpretation illuminates truths heretofore hidden. Some of this concern comes from a confusion of documentary photography with photojournalism, some from increased public awareness of how easily and undetectably images can be altered.

We need to get straight what documentary photography has been and is: overwhelmingly often an art form inspired by concern for social justice and eagerness to participate in social change. It aims to see and show beneath the common-sense assumptions that so often prevent us from seeing the actual relationships that create both human and ecological erosion.

Related Articles:
Comparative Essay: The Great Depression/The Current Crisis
Ansel Adams:  How Did He Do It?
Ansel Adams:  Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox
Documentary Photography: Lesson 1
Documentary Photography: Lesson 2 Altering Images, How Far Can We Go?
Photojournalism Visual Lies
Street Photography Tips
What is the Difference Between Street Photography and Documentary Photography?
Ethics and Credibility

Ansel Adams

Susan Brannon
4th August 2011
Ansel Adams a Biography 

Ansel Adams has been the environmental legendary photographer who captured Americas beauty through the lens.  He is known for his black and white photographs that resound with shadows and light.  In my opinion, he has been one of the best photographers in our American history.

He was born in San Francisco on February 20, 1902 and passed on in April 22, 1984. He was a traveler and environmentalist who had a keen passion for nature. It is assumed that Ansel Adams suffered from dylexia, because he had problems fitting in at school.  Some others feel that he may have had ADHA, hyperactive disorder.  His father decided to tutor him at home, and earned a diploma completing the 8th grade from Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins Private School.

He would wolk in nature in his childhood in the wilds near the Golden gate bridge or hiking the dunes along Lobos Creek and off to Bakers Beach.  Later in life, he set out through America.

At twelve years old, Ansel Adams taught himself to play the piano and became his primary occupation.  It could be that the training and discipline required to learn the piano influenced his view of photography.

His first camera was the Kodak No. 1 Box Brownie that his parents bought him.  He would take the camera with him during his hikes and spent the first four summers from 1919, in Yosemite Valley as the "keeper" of the Sierra Clubs, LeConte Memorial Lodge.

The Sierra Club contributed to Ansel Adams success as a photographer because he first published photographs and writings in the club's 1922 Bulletin, and in 1928 he had his first one man exhibition in San Francisco.

in the late 1920's, the Sierra Club would offer month long trips in the Sierra Nevada, where the participants hiked each day to a new campsite, using mules, packers, and cooks.  Adams, was the photographer of the outings and he soon realized that he could earn enough money to survive.  By 1934, Adams was elected to the club's board of directors and was already established as both artist and director of the Sierra Nevada.

Ansel Adams met photographer, Paul Strand in the 1930's and influenced his work from "pictorial style" to "straight photography", using the clarity of the lens.  Adams developed the development techniques of "burning" and "dodging" as well as the "zone system" to adjust the tonality of the images.  In 1952 Adams was one of the founders of the magazine Aperture, which was intended as a serious journal of photography showcasing its best practitioners and newest innovations.

Although Adams was gaining in popularity, in the 1930's he still seemed to have difficulty with financial pressures. He was busy, as a commercial photographer, but the clients took control.  He worked for National Park Service, Kodak, Zeiss, IBM, AT&T, Life, Fortune and the Arizona Highways magazines, shooting portraits to catalogues.  He was loosing his track in photography because he was swamped with commercial work for practical reasons.

Adams was good with technical matters in photography as consulted companies like Weston and Strand, Polaroid, and Hasselbland.  Ansel Adams was a activist of the cause of the wilderness and environment.  Adams images became an icon of wild America.  His images are no "realistic" of nature, but they have an intensification and purification of the experience of natural beauty.  (Ansel Adams)
His compelling images came from inspiration!

Related Articles:
Henri Cartie'r-Bresson (article)
Henri Cartie'r Bresson (Images)