A photographer who had compassion and vision
DOROTHEA LANGE/RESTTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION
orn in 1895,
Dorothea Lange
used her camera to
alert Americans about
the suffering of others.
Lange was horrified
by how ordinary
Americans were
struggling to survive
the Great Depression
in the 1930s. She
photographed people
waiting in endless
lines for bread or
searching for scarce
jobs. Her photos
also captured proud
migrant workers who
pitched their tents in
fields or temporary
This photo (1936) by Dorothea
camps hoping to find any kind of work. Lange’s
Lange shows the daughter of
migrant farm workers outside
moving portraits became symbols of poverty and
the tent her family lived in.
suffering during the 1930s.
Photos like this documented a
Lange desperately wanted her work to have an
difficult time in the United States.
impact—and it did. Housing for the homeless was
set up after a newspaper published her now-famous
image Migrant Mother. The photo
captured a widow with her
TIME TO CONNECT
children. The woman, who looked
much older than her 32 years,
• Locate a picture of a person in a history book,
kept her family alive on peas from
newspaper, or magazine that moves you in
farm fields and the wild birds her
some way.
children could catch.
The power of Lange’s work—
• Identify what exactly in the photograph makes
and the people she portrayed—
you feel this way.
helped make Americans aware of
• Write a short essay that describes the subject
the economic and physical chalof the photograph and how you feel about that
lenges other people faced daily.
person. Make sure to use words that accurately
convey your feelings and thoughts.
196
Chapter 10
Photography
BUILDING VOCABULARY
Number a sheet of paper from 1 to 9. After
each number, write the term from the list that
best matches each description below.
camera
photogram
daguerreotype
photography
digital camera
photojournalism
negative
translucent
photogenic
drawing
1. A term that means light is able to pass
through.
2. The art of making images using light and
other principles of science.
3. Reverse image of the object
photographed.
4. A device containing a tiny scanner, which
converts visual information into computercoded form.
5. An image made using precoated paper
that detects the presence of ultraviolet
light.
6. Reporting a news event mainly or totally
through photographic images.
7. A dark box with a hole controlling how
much light enters.
8. An image made on copper plates coated
with highly polished silver.
9. The process of coating a sheet of drawing
paper with silver chloride to produce a
calotype.
REVIEWING ART FACTS
Number a sheet of paper from 10 to 13.
Answer each question in a complete sentence.
10. Who is Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre?
Compare his contribution to photography with that of William Henry
Fox Talbot.
11. Who were the first important photojournalists? What subjects did they
concentrate on?
12. Name and describe two pioneering
photographers of the twentieth century.
Tell what each contributed to photography as an art form.
13. What is a photo essay?
CROSS-CURRICULUM
CONNECTIONS
14. Social Studies. Study the Brady
photograph of the Civil War battlefield
on page 185. Identify cultural ideas
expressed in this artwork relating to
environmental themes. For example, how
does Brady document the destruction of
war? What effect do you think war
machinery had on the environment?
15. Science. Research the development of
the Polaroid camera invented by Edwin
Land. When did this camera come into
existence? Analyze ways in which
electronic media or technologies have
influenced art. For example, how might
the Polaroid camera have influenced
professional photographers?
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth,Texas
Learn about cowboy life through the lens
of photographer Erwin E. Smith. View his
work at the Amon Carter Museum by
clicking on art.glencoe.com. Participate
in the online lesson to learn more about
cowboy culture. Learn more about Texas
culture and history, too!
Chapter 10 Review
197