Book and Film Review: Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits (2009), Grab A Hunk Of Lightning (2014)

Gordon, Linda. Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits. 1st ed. London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009. Print.

American Masters: Dorothea Lange: Grab A Hunk Of Lightning. Dyanna Taylor, dir, 2014. DVD.

It’s not difficult to understand why this book was a prizewinner.  The writing is crisp, sufficient background is provided to contextualize the actions and behavior of the actors, and the main subject is presented as a complex, contradicted human, one who through her images expressed great empathy but was so driven in her work that she often took for granted the people with whom she shared her life.  This was my first extended exposure to Lange and so I had no preconceptions to be challenged or reinforced.  As presented by Gordan, I found her someone with whom I could sympathize in her curiosity about the working and living conditions of others, in her interest in exploring new surroundings, her sense of adventure, and her sensitivity to injustice.  I also appreciate her approach to photography as a method of communication and a tool for changing the world.  Lange was foremost a documentary photographer, one might argue even an ethnographer, who first honed her skills making commercial portraits and who took the portraitist’s sensibility, of making people look their best, into the field.  She was least interested in photography as a means of exploring self, though of course no conscientious image maker can deny the power of the process to affect the camera operator.  It is clear from comments made late in life that she was fully aware of the transformative potential of engaging in the visual arts.

The American Masters film was directed by one of Lange’s grandchildren and provides a concise summary of the photographer's life and work should you not have the time to devote to Gordan’s biography.  The film is actually a suitable companion to the book, allowing the reader to hear Lange’s voice, to witness her gait (caused by childhood polio), to see her interact with grandchildren, and with photographic colleagues such as John Szarkowski, who aided her in preparing her retrospective at the MoMA.  The granddaughter’s presentation appears a bit more idolatrous than Gordan’s, but does not entirely overlook some of the less romantic aspects of Lange’s life.

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