Compare and contaste two photographs

Compare and contrast two photographs- Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange

In this essay I’m going to analyse two different photographs of two different photographers, the photographic genre is documentary photography, the aim of this essay is to compare and contrast the two image trying to use our point of view and reflection.

Looking back, documentary photography was able to communicate to the masses the truth in difficult times, it was a way to show disturbing scenes to raise awareness of something that was often ignored such as poverty and hunger.

It was a means to reshape public opinion on government policies applied by the different governments, exposing the flaws, problems, decisions too often unknown to most people.

Documentary photography shows how images can change the world.

The key of documentary photography, the cause is so important is all in showing what happens. A photograph is much more direct, faster than a set of words, able to sculpt in people’s minds for a long time.

The documentary photographer were able to communicate to the masses creating feelings in people, in order to respond and help people in need.

In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Resettlement Administration, later renamed the Farm Security Administration (FSA).

The purpose of this agency was to help the poor rural Americans that their farms have been removed during The Great Depression.

The FSA is famous for its advertising program in which portrays very strong images of people and poor places.

The FSA use these images to justify and document federal aid, highlighting the work they were doing, and The American rural life in general.

The main objective was to show the Americans in desperate situation and gain support for the subsidised government programs.

The people who appeared in these images were portrayed with dignity proving to be always active trying to improve the lotus positions, implying that they deserved better.

These images were published in popular magazines and newspapers, so were definitely seen by a wide audience, so the rest of the population would be facilitated more aware of situational peasants, migrant workers, and sharecroppers.

Through this they tried to sensitize the people and bring them to take action, embracing the assistance programs sponsored by the government.

Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans were part of this group of photographers commissioned by the governments.

Lange and Evans were able to create images with great precision.

Both photographer became well known for their photo during the Great Depression.

The mission of these photographers was to capture the human side of social and economic concerns, bringing them to the attention of the nation.

Dorothea Lange was born in New Jersey, the photographer spent a difficult childhood, because of health problems and family, but this makes it even more strong and motivated in what will become her passion.

She began her photographic training at New York in 1917, then moved to San Francisco where she will spend all her life.

On her business card had printed under her own name “photographer of the people”, and it is documenting the dramatic crisis that America lived during the Great Depression that was able to bring to the attention of all the stories of the people with great humanity.

Were many photographers who immortalized those terrible years, but what sets Dorothea are respect and delicacy with which approaches its protagonists.

Her main criterion was “seeking the truth in all things and at all costs”.

Before taking pictures never failed to ask who they were and what they did the men and women on which she pointed the camera, she wanted to know their history and always asked permission to photograph, looking in her portraits in black and white to highlight “true courage”.

Some of her picture have become fundamental icons of that historical period.

Lange had a compassionate eye a consciousness for social justice. The Lange photographs documented the misery and despair  during the Great Depression in an effort to help the people by drawing attention to their situation.

Her photographs are full of emotions.

Migrant Mother is one of the most famous photographs of this photographer, taken in California March 6, 1936.

In this photo we see a mother from her face marked by fatigue and by wrinkles, looking lost, from which we can glimpse all the concern, dignity and hope in her eyes that distinguishes those who migrate in search of better living conditions.

The two children at her side that hide the face and simultaneously seek protection.

This powerful image won the hearts of audience and became one of the most famous photographs Americans history. Unlike Evans, Lange used a Graflex camera 4x5 which allowed her to get close to his subject.

Walker Evans was one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

Born in 1903 in St, Louis (Missouri) from a wealthy family, the small Eva , he dabbled in painting, taking photographs to the family and friends using a small Kodak camera. Thanks to the financial willingness of the family , Evans was able to study in the best schools including the Loomis Institute, The Mercersburg Academy and finally the Phillips Academy in Andover ( Massachusetts)where he graduated in 1922.

Evans then enrolled at Williams College where he remained, however, just a year. As a child he lived in Toledo, New York and Chicago, which allowed the small Evans to grow with a good propensity to travel. So much so that just in 1926 he moved to Paris for a year and then returned to New York.

In 1933 that Evans got his first real assignment, Cuba, where he documented the uprising of the local population against the dictator Gerardo Machado.

Returning home, he worked for the Farm Security Administration, documenting around the nation the Great Depression.

The photographs taken represented the faces of the people, the houses, the streets and the living conditions of that period where the financial collapse brought a lot of unemployment and lower family income. Evans succeeded with these his work to convey to the world the suffering of that time, with professional shots immortalising the lives of citizens who lived in rural areas, with realistic and objective images. The best quality of Evans, evident in all his works, has been to create authentic images, real and raw.

For example in one of his work in Alabama, in this famous picture there is a man sitting in the doorway, barefoot, no one knows what to do, nor is it clear why “does something” , is the symbols of all the unemployed with family on shoulders. But at the same time is unique human being, with its history, has a specific name, Floyd Burroughs, no work: he is still there in front of us, young, handsome, strong, and with nothing to do.

From this work, Evans and others, the governments was shocked and acted. The photographs helped to enact concrete measures.

In the summer of 1936, Walker Evans decided to take a brake from the FSA to undertake a trip with his friend writer James Agee, charged to go in southern area of United States.

James Agee worked with him in the writing of an article on the living conditions of the framers during this time of great crisis.

Much of the captured material was published a book of the live of Alabama families.

During his career as photographer, Walker won a many awards and received several award. The artist has left a tangible mark on the world of photography, due to the demonstration of how great talent that has made him one of the famous masters of photography worldwide.

One of the difference of the photographs of Evans Compared to those of Lange is that Evans also focuses on homes, shops while managing to communicate the suffering and poverty of this great depression.

Evans prefers the industrial environment compared to the rural one, unlike perhaps the Lange.

Bibliography

(1) http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Walker-Evans.html
(2) https://lis471.wordpress.com/walker-evans/

(3) https://lis471.wordpress.com/dorothea-lange/

(4) http://www.theartstory.org/artist-lange-dorothea.htm