Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was an American photographer who became famous for taking powerful portraits of the people of the Great Depression in the 1930s. She focused on capturing real emotions, especially the misfortunes and adversities of regular families. Probably her most recognizable photo is Migrant Mother, where a mother cares about her children with a troubled expression. Lange often used natural light and simple backgrounds to allow the reader to center their attention on the person’s face and feelings. Her work is important because it shows honest human stories and helps people understand the difficulties others were facing.

I will utilize artificial and natural light in an effort to add depth and dimension to portraits while maintaining an emotional focus on emotion, inspired by Dorothea Lange. Like Lange, I strive to portray images of authentic facial expression and subtle physical motions depicting an inner emotion. Through the combination of these varied lighting skills, I can emphasize those emotions far better, just as Lange herself focused upon real emotion and storytelling in her photographs. This has led me to the point of wanting to create portraits where light, composition, and emotion come together to tell a meaningful story, following the example of Lange’s emotional and truthful approach.