Analysis of Two Pictures by Dorothea Lange Essay Example for Free

Analysis of Two Pictures by Dorothea Lange Essay Dorothea Lange is one of the America’s most renowned documentary photographers. Yet her works can not be considered as â€Å"purely† documental. Lnge’s ability to demonstrate the inner world of her heroes and her masterful photographic techniques placed her works in the middle between photography and art. In this paper I will attempt to review and analyze two Lange’s photographs: â€Å"Human Erosion in California† (â€Å"Migrant Mother†) and â€Å"Child and Her Mother†. I am going to analyze them in terms of style, symbolism and influence on future Lange’s career and development of the art of photography. â€Å"Human Erosion in California† and â€Å"Child and Her Mother† are separated with the period of three years being made in 1936 and 1939 respectively. This was a time when Lange was about forty and her talent flourished reaching its highpoint. At that time she made her name as a social critic, as her matter of primary concern was the fate of poor and dispossessed people . â€Å"Human Erosion in California† is probably her most famous picture touching this theme. More broadly, Lange was interested in the people as they are and people in different situations. The â€Å"Child and Her Mother† is more a psychological than social work, or, better to say, a work on human psychology in a stagnating society. Here Lange could apply her experience she received working with Maynard Dixon and in the portrait studio to develop her own original style . The picture that later became known as â€Å"Human Erosion in California† or â€Å"Migrant Mother† was originally made in California in 1936. This picture that became almost an iconic vision of the Great Depression depicts Florence Owens Thompson, a Cherokee woman whose husband died in 1932 leaving her with five children and expecting the sixth child. Describing their meeting Lange wrote: I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. Lange has made several pictures of the same model to find the best perspective. The most famous of the pictures she made demonstrates a prematurely aged woman sitting in a camp with two underage children cuddling to their mother. The woman looks both tensed and tired. Her look can not be called desperate, she rather seems to be disappointed and desolated. A woman can not afford herself to become frustrated as she has to care of the babies. Despite of all her grieves she looks strong and decisive. This picture places a model in the centre while the details of the background are unimportant. Much later Thompson told that Langer promised her not to publish the picture and to send her a copy, yet she did neither. Officially the picture was made for the government and Lange never received royalties for it, but this work was a landmark that contributed greatly to her success. 20 000 pounds of food arrived to the camp where the picture was made after publication of the picture, but Thompson has not received any since she had already moved in search of work . Durden observes that many of Lange’s pictures â€Å"focus on the expressive potential of the body’s gesture† . This is true for the â€Å"Migrant Mother†, but this feature of Lange’s work can be most obviously illustrated by the â€Å"Child and Her Mother†. The picture was made in 1939 in the Yakima Valley near Washington. It is less famous than the â€Å"Migrant Mother†, yet not less brilliant as it presents another aspect of Lange’s talent. â€Å"Child and Her Mother† is a socio-psychological work combining the view of a teenage frustration with social blunders. From the artistic point of view Lange used a different composition in this picture. In contrast to static â€Å"Migrant Mother† this photograph presents movement and tensed rhythm. A child, who can also be perceived as a young girl downcasts her eyes linking against the wire fence while carefully observed by her mother. Both stand on a sandy desert land burned by sun, but the mother attempts to cover her eyes while the daughter keeps them open. It appears that the girl is trying to escape the life that her mother has lived in order to overcome sadness and poverty . Lange’s work in the times of the Great Depression are not unique. Not less famous are, for example, works of Arthur Rothstein. Yet Lange is distinguished by her profound sympathetic understanding not of the social phenomena, but of the people suffering from it. This is a kind of â€Å"female view† of the Great Depression as an event that revealed the hidden sides of people’s characters. For this reason Lange’s pictures would hardly be lost in the stream of her contemporaries’ works. Works Cited: 1. Partridge, Elizabeth. Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange. Puffin, 1991; 2. Meltzer, Milton. Dorothea Lange: A Photographers Life. Syracuse University Press; 1st Syracuse University Press Ed edition, 2000; 3. Durden, Mark. Dorothea Lange. Phaidon Press, 2006; 4. Spirn, Anne Winston. Daring to Look: Dorothea Langes Photographs and Reports from the Field. University Of Chicago Press, 2008; 5. Maksel, Rebecca. â€Å"Migrant Madonna†. Smithsonian magazine, March 2002. http://www. smithsonianmag. com/arts-culture/Migrant_Madonna. html retrieved April 27, 2009.

Americas Violence Fixation Essay examples -- Media Violent Crime Essa

America's Violence Fixation One of America's biggest problems today is violence. It is happening everywhere, in the households, out on the streets, even in our schools. When we watch the news and see these acts of violence, we hear the blame be put to one thing: entertainment. Movies and video games are supposedly causing young people to behave aggressively in society, and maybe even compelling them to kill. Some even believe that video rental stores should have policies, such as always requiring an ID, and that some TV programs, movies, and games glorify guns and violence, as well as the guns themselves (center4policy.org). True, some films do portray murder and violence as justifiable; films such as Blade, in which the title character killed vampires in an effort to protect the human race, or The Matrix, where the main characters used violence to free humanity from an artificial intelligence. Video games also have a considerable amount of violence in them as well. The main idea of Grand Theft Auto, one of the more popular video games, is to overtake a city, even if it means using violence. Players are allowed a various array of weapons from baseball bats to machine guns to assist them in missions. Ratings are placed on games, this particular one is rated "M" for "Mature". Retail stores are to check ID of customers in order for them to purchase such games. However, that does not stop children from borrowing the games from others, or even having unsuspecting parents buying them. The question, however, is: "Is entertainment really the cause of violence?" I have been affected personally by the media's claim that entertainment causes violence. One morning on the news program Good Morning... ...at some people disagree with some forms and aspects of entertainment is perfectly fine; not everyone will agree with some of it. Trying to overthrow what the masses enjoy is a completely different matter. As a race, we forget freedom of speech; one voice always has to be louder than the other. Personally, in terms of "Grand Theft Auto", "Pokemon", and " Harry Potter", people purchase these because they enjoy them, they are entertained by them, why not just let them do their thing? I suppose those who point the finger at these live such clean, wholesome lives. The bottom line is: there are things that are popular, people will buy them, be entertained, have, fun, and it will pass. Let them enjoy it. Sources http://www.pegmusic.com/violence-in-amer.html http://www.center4policy.org/violencec.html http://www.davekopel.com/Media/Irmassag.htm

Organized sport Essay

There are multiple benefits of playing an organized sport in school and it definitely help you out in life. Confidence is a huge part of being part of an organized sport. When you improve and keep improving you will start to feel better about yourself. Your coach will tell you the same thing when you are doing well and that should be a great feeling and will greatly increase your confidence. Sportsmanship is another benefit of playing sports. When someone makes you angry when you are playing you need to be able to stay composed and don’t let it get to you. It’s the same way when you are not playing a sport. You shouldn’t need to start anything with anyone. Playing organized sports will also help you with getting along with people. You need to be able to get along with your teammates especially. It is part of team chemistry and if it isn’t there then the team might not be as good as they could be if you just got along. If you don’t like them you still need to get along with them while playing your sport or it wont work. Students who participate in organized sports tend to work harder in school and have greater educational aspirations. It can also be an incentive to get better grades in school. Some schools require minimum grade point averages and attendance to be eligible. Parents can also set certain requirements for their kids. When children participate in these types of activities they learn to communicate and work better with their peers and adults. Organized sports are usually made up of kids who have a lot of different social backgrounds. Which can help teach them about diversity and give them the opportunity to make new friends. It teaches you a strong work ethic as well. They are more likely to be active and hard working students. Organized sports teach kids how to be disciplined during practice and how to focus to the task they are doing at the moment, and how to be patient when things get a little rough. Athletes also have to be able to achieve balance between their schoolwork and sports. There are many ways that benefit kids who participate in organized sports. Perseverance will make them stronger and the will gain the willpower to be the best athlete they can possibly be.

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