Dorothea Lange was considered an influential photographer who focused on capturing images that reflected around the depression that America had. She has been recognized for her images during the great depression, of farm workers during the dust bowl. She also took the images of the farm workers for the Farm Security Administration (fsa). Dorothea was born in the United States where she focused on pursuing photography.

Although I am new to photography and don’t fully understand the criteria to critic an image and understand the underworking’s of the technique I can why she was called the best documentary photographer. All the images I found for her were in black and white which in my opinion gave the images more of a mood that went with the dustbowl. The dustbowl was a hardship many faced and it was a desperate time filled with sadness and pain.  For instance, one of her piece’s title “immigrant mother” has a lot of effects going on. In the subjects face you could see the wrinkles of age and hardship she faced clearly with a great combination of lighting. You could feel the struggle she went through and the pain her children had to go through. The children are hiding their faces and burying them in her shoulders. This gave me a feeling of the crying because of what they had to go through.

In the other pictures taken during the dustbowl era you find a similar effect. Her images carried strong messages that were received when viewed. In this pictures there was barren land with the subject of the image. The contrast between how empty the space was to the person being photographed helped show how much devastation the the dustbowl had brought to them. Her style to me used the contrast between lights and shadows to make the images pop up more. I do wish I knew more of photography to be able to elaborate more because her images are splendid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/lange/