In keeping with the Grapes of Wrath freshman reading requirement, there’s currently a small exhibit of Dorothea Lange’s depression era photographs at the Carol Tatkon Center on North Campus. These photographs illustrate the uncertainty, chaos and fear that ran rampant during the Great Depression. Most of the photographs are portraits, but some are simply taken of the areas in which the people photographed lived, worked and eventually died. These portraits are of those individuals hardest hit by the depression: migrant workers, sharecroppers and farmers, many of whom had to travel West in hope of finding jobs and starting anew.Lange's photos hang in the Tatkon Center

Overall, the pictures are powerful. Their ability to convey a sense of terror in the unknown, a sort of almost hopeless hope, makes the Great Depression feel real here in the present day. Dorothea Lange’s ability to capture her subject at the opportune moment of expression stems not only from her ability to manifest the tragedy that befell real people during her time but a desire to be a voice or medium of communication for the oppressed and unheard.

Dorothea Lange was born Dorothea Nutzhorn in Hoboken, New Jersey, on May 26, 1895. She suffered from polio as a child, causing her to eventually have a permanent limp. At the age of twelve, her father left her and her mother, causing Dorothea to drop her middle and last names and in turn to take up her mother’s maiden name of Lange. She studied photography under the guise of Clarence H. White in New York City, going on to establish her own portrait studio in Berkeley, California. After the Great Depression hit, Dorothea worked for the Farm Security Administration, and this is where the bulk of the photographs on display at the Tatkon Center come from. This work has had a significant effect on documentary photography and photojournalism, and brought to the public attention the disturbing consequences of the Great Depression in rural areas of the United States.

Lange attempted to use her photographs to portray real life. She created an objective means by which audiences could view these photographs. Although in any photograph the viewer is likely to impose his or her own socio-cultural background or subjectivity onto the image, Lange’s pictures have been able to have a universal appeal.

This has allowed her photographs to be viewed and interpreted in an almost objective manner. We can all experience her photograph of the displaced farmer’s family with sympathy, uncertainty and a shared sense of hope. In the realm of photography, there seems to be an idea that an objective reality is nearly impossible to portray. Yet Lange’s photographs are as close as can possibly be to this reality. She is removed from her work yet at the same time able to extract particular qualities from the subjects she chooses to portray. She is able to bring to light the general political and social problems of her time while keeping herself as best she can as an outside observer.

The very nature of Dorothea Lange’s photographs tells us a lot about her. She chose those hardest hit by the Depression as her subjects because they intrigued her the most. The political and social messages conveyed in these images were powerful and intriguing and probably brought more attention to the issues at hand than any other kinds of image possibly could. Lange went on to work for the War Relocation Authority, taking photographs of those forced into the Japanese internment camps in the wake of Pearl Harbor. These images also brought harrowing ideas of injustice to the American public as Japanese men, women and children were forced into relocation camps without any viable charges against them.

Lange’s ability to make one feel the injustice, fear and uncertainty which her subjects feel makes these images worth a closer look. They will continue to be available for viewing through Sep. 30 at the Carol Tatkon Center.