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
