Livingston Public Library press release:

March 25, 2022

On the evening of March 28 at 7 p.m., the Livingston Public Library presents a virtual conversation about the life and work of Dorothea Lange, pioneer of photojournalism and one of America’s most celebrated photographers.

Passionate about art and educator, Sylvia Laudien-Meo will show you how throughout her career

Dorothea Lange was keenly aware of the power of words that could “extend, support, illuminate and explain photography” in the form of captions, but could also increasingly “find themselves” in our surroundings in the form of advertisements, signs, etc. ., adding to the story of an image.

After an early career as a portrait photographer, Dorothea Lange dedicated her life to documenting life during the Great Depression, telling people’s stories, as faithfully as possible, through her photographs. As one of our first professional photojournalists, she traveled the country for the Farm Security Administration to capture the lives of poor sharecroppers, documented life inside Japanese incarceration camps and in coastal towns booming during World War II, and contributed to many major publications like LIFE magazine. .

Speaking of Dorothea, Sylvia says, “She very carefully composed her thought-provoking images while always devoting herself to being truthful, taking detailed field notes, including her subject’s comments and personal observations. She has created many iconic images, the most famous being the migrant mother.”

Sylvia will closely examine several of his works and discuss his various projects, his compositional choices and the interrelationship of image and word in his work.

You can register for the conference here.

Here are some books (including fiction) available with your library card that will shed more light on Lange. These are followed by a list of selected titles on other photography icons.

The gypsies: a novel by Jasmine Darznik

In 1918, Dorothea leaves the East Coast for California, where a disaster sparks a new life. His friendship with Caroline Lee, a vivacious and outspoken woman with a complicated past, allows him to enter Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of San Francisco. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art and politics. She also unexpectedly – and recklessly – finds herself falling in love with Maynard Dixon, a brilliant but troubled painter. Dorothea and Caroline end up creating a thriving portrait studio, but a devastating betrayal pushes their friendship to breaking point and changes the course of their lives.

Dorothea Lange: American Photographs by Therese Thau Heyman

The essays in this exhibition catalog summarize what we know of Lange’s life; on his humanistic photographs (the best of which reveal the power of communication in body language, gesture and facial expression); on the controversial nature of documentary photography in the 1930s; and on the tired debate about art, document and propaganda.

Dorothea Lang: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon

We all know the iconic photos of Dorothea Lange – the “MigrantMother” holding her child, the gaunt men waiting desperately in bread lines – but few know the arc of her extraordinary life. In this comprehensive account, renowned historian Linda Gordon traces Lange’s journey from child with polio to wife and mother, San Francisco portrait photographer, chronicler of the Great Depression and World War II. It explores Lange’s growing radicalization as she embraced the democratic power of the camera, and it examines Lange’s body of work, reproducing over a hundred images, many of them previously unseen and some of between them formerly suppressed. Lange reminds us that beauty can be found in unlikely places, and to respond to injustice we must first simply learn to see it.

Impoundment: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Footage of Japanese American Internment edited by Linda Gordon

Featuring 119 images originally censored by the US military, the majority of which were never released. Impounded evokes the horror of an uprooted community in the early 1940s and the harsh reality of internment camps.

Learning to See: A Novel by Dorothea Lange, the Woman Who Revealed the Real America by Elise Hooper

At a time when women were expected to stay home, Dorothea Lange, creator of some of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century, dared to be different. Hooper presents a gripping account of the woman behind the camera who risked everything for art, activism and love.

Restless Mind: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge

A biography of Dorothea Lange, whose photographs of migrant workers, Japanese American internees, and rural poverty contributed to important social reforms.

Annie Leibovitz at work

Leibovitz, our most famous living photographer, explains how his photos are made. Topics include photojournalism, studio work, photographing dancers and athletes, working with writers, and transitioning from shooting with film to working with digital cameras.

Berenice Abbott: A Life in Photography by Julia Van Haaften

Berenice Abbott is to American photography what Georgia O’Keeffe is to painting or Willa Cather to letters. Abbott’s sixty-year career established her not only as a master of American photography, but also as a teacher, writer, archivist, and inventor. This biography secures Abbott’s place in the history of photography and modern art while framing her accomplishments as a female artist and entrepreneur.

Bill Cunningham’s On The Street: five decades of iconic photography

This official photography book houses the 50-year collection of the most iconic and beloved photographs taken by prolific fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, the king of street style. The iconic Cunningham was known for rocking a blue work jacket and biking around New York as he captured edgy street style (before street style was even a thing). He photographed for The New York Times from 1978 until his death in 2016 and wrote the beloved “On the Street” and “Evening Hours” columns, which debuted in 1989.

Garry Winogrand: Everything is photographable (DVD)

A documentary about an important American photographer who captured New York in the 1960s (his work there is said to have influenced the TV show Mad Men) and later west to Texas and Los Angeles.

Leaving Home, Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank (DVD)

Recounts the life and career of Robert Frank, a transformative Swiss-American photographer, capturing Frank reflecting on his work, including his most influential photography book “The Americans”.

How Photography Became Contemporary Art: Inside a Pop Art Revolution in the Digital Age by Andy Grundberg

Grundberg writes of the “boom years” of photography, chronicling the growing role of the medium in the most important artistic movements of the time, from land art and conceptual art to performance and art. video. It also traces the adoption of photography by museums and galleries, as well as its politicization in the culture wars of the 80s and 90s. Both memory and history, this perspective ultimately tells a larger story over the decades of the 70s and 80s through the medium of photography.

Light on the Landscape: Photographs and Lessons from a Lifetime in Photography by William Neill

For more than two decades, William Neill has offered his thoughts and insights on photography and the beauty of nature in essays that span the techniques, business and spirit of his photographic life. Organized and collected here for the first time, these essays are both pragmatic and profound, offering readers an intimate behind-the-scenes look at Neill’s creative process behind individual photographs as well as a discussion of the larger, more fundamental topics. which are the key to his philosophy. and approach to work.

Vivian Maier Developed: The Untold Story of the Nanny Photographer by Ann Marks

The definitive, authorized biography that unfolds the remarkable story of Vivian Maier, the nanny who secretly lived as a world-class photographer, with nearly 400 of her images, many never seen before, placed for the first time in the context of his life. No one knew that behind the detached veneer hid a deeply intelligent, empathetic and inspired woman – a woman so gifted with creativity that her work would become one of the greatest photographic discoveries of the century.

–Archana, Adult Services and Acquisitions Librarian

This press release was produced by Livingston Public Library. The opinions expressed here are those of the author.