Dorothea Lange, a photographer in the 20th century, is best known for her personal yet complicated photos of struggle and hardship. Lange was not just a photographer but a storyteller. She carefully gathered stories about the images she took from her subjects. This image was captured in 1942 as part of a collection centered around the Japanese Internment Camps. This image tells the story of many Japanese families whose items were thrown on the street in preparation for the relocation. Not knowing what was going to happen next, they are pictured sitting on stacks of suitcases on the side of the street, waiting for someone to determine what the future holds.
Lange uses her images to document and share the social injustices that affect families. She specifically captures moments that force the audience to show compassion and empathy towards her subjects. She chooses to humanize those in her pictures by taking pictures of people at their hardest moments in order to bring awareness.
Bill Nichols shares in his book, “If documentaries represent issues and aspects, qualities and problems found in the historical world, they can be said to speak about this world through both sounds and images” (42). Even though Lange works with only images, she is still able to capture stories of people living through historic events. In the image I have chosen, Lange seamlessly captures the worry and fear in her subjects’ lives while also showing the experience of the historical Japanese Internment Camps.
Through her work, she gives voice and representation to those who were silenced by the US Government. She tells many testimonies of individuals and families who have stories of struggle and hardship. Lange shows her audience that documentary work is about advocacy, and that images have just as much power to share the injustices of the world and preserve the stories that are trying to be erased.
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