“THE CAMERA IS AN INSTRUMENT THAT TEACHES PEOPLE HOW TO SEE WITHOUT A CAMERA”: LANGE’S PHOTOGRAPHS OF A LIFETIME

LANGE, Dorothea. Photographs of a Lifetime. (New York): Aperture, (1982). Quarto, original pictorial gray wrappers. $150.

First edition, second printing, of this classic Aperture monograph on Dorothea Lange, featuring many photographs from An American Exodus. The copy of acclaimed photojournalist Peter Turnley.

“Lange was one of the most celebrated American photographers of the 20th century, who did some of her best, and best-known, work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in the 1930s. Her archetypal and timeless imagery of migratory workers in California, uprooted Dust Bowl families, cotton pickers, black tenant farmers, and drought refugees awakened the national consciousness to the plight of the dispossessed. Her ‘Migrant Mother,’ showing the careworn face of a 32-year-old pea-picker’s wife, became a symbol of the Depression” (McDarrah, 266). The photographer of the landmark New Deal documentary book An American Exodus, Lange was known for pictures “as direct as those of Walker Evans, though without his studied disinterest… Lange was warmer and more humane displaying an overt empathy that, importantly, could be transmitted to the public” (Parr & Badger I:142). From the collection of Peter Turnley, acclaimed photojournalist for Newsweek, Life and Harper’s Magazine, who has covered “almost every important international news event of the last 15 years” (New York Times). Owner signature and gift inscription to Turnley on half title.

A very nearly fine copy.