Comic Life

Photographer : Dorothea Lange

Name : Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn (Lange)

Birth : May 26, 1895    Death : October 11, 1965 (Age 70)
Location Born : Hoboken, New Jersey
Known For : Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA)
Occupation : Photographer & Photojournalist
Equipment Used : Fixed-tripod camera, Graflex 4x5 single lens reflex camera
Schooling : Photography at Columbia University in New York City

Dorothea was born in Hoboken, on May 26th, 1895 and is a well-known photographer specifically for her famous piece of a desperate and hungry mother, Florence Thompson, with her two children linked onto her side.  This photo was called "Migrant Mother".  Growing up loving the city life, she experienced two traumatic incidents. At the age of 12, she dropped her middle name and took her mothers maiden name of Lange after her German father abandoned his family and the other incident was the contraction of Polio, which is a viral disease that can affect nerves, at the age of 7.  Having Polio, weakened her right leg and gave her a permanent limp but that didnt stop her from living her dreams.   Dorothea was educated at the New York Training School for teachers but later changed her mind to get involved in photography.  She started to work in a Arnold Genthe`s studio and later went to study at Columbia University with Clarence White, an American Photographer. 

In 1918, Lange moved to San Francisco and after the following year, she opened up a portrait studio that was very successful.  In 1920, Dorothea married Maynard Dixon, a western painter and later had two sons, Daniel Rhoades Dixon and John Eaglesfeather Dixon.  Her focus for her photography was unemployed, homeless people which led her to an employment opportunity with Farm Security Administration. 

December of 1935, Dorothea divorced Maynard, and later married a Professor of Economics at University of California, Paul Schuster Taylor.  Paul then taught Dorothea the importance of social, political matters and they together recorded on rural poverty and exploitation of migrant laborers. 

`"From 1935 to 1939, Dorothea Lange's work for the RA and FSA brought the plight of the poor and forgotten — particularly sharecroppers, displaced farm families, and migrant workers — to public attention. Distributed free to newspapers across the country, her poignant images became icons of the era"

In 1941, Dorothea was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for excellence in photography. A couple years later, in 1945, she was invited by Ansel Adams, another famous photographer, to a position as faculty at a fine art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts.   Later, in 1952 she co-founded the photographic magazine called "Aperture" which later herself and Pirkle Jones were commissioned to shoot a photo documentary for Life Magazine for the passing of Monticello, California and displacement of the residents by damming of Putah Creek to create Kale Berryessa in the mid 1950s.

Dorothea's health became very poor not to long after.  She begun to suffer from gastric problms, which had bleeding ulcers as well as post-polio syndrome.  She later died on October 11th 1965 from Esophageal Cancer.  In todays society, we still remember having her photographs of the internment at the National Archives website and also at the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. 

Florence Thompson, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936
1960 : "I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. 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. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it."

Three Churches of the High Plains, Near Winner, South Dakota , 1938

Ditched, Stalled and Stranded, San Joaquin Valley, California, 1935



Dust Storm near Mills, New Mexico, 1935

Migratory cotton picker, Near Coolidge, Arizona, 1940

Dust Storm, Manzanar,1942

Crossroads Store, Person Country, North Carolina, 1939

Why did I chose Dorothea Lange?  Well, I love her work especially because it is back when the Depression was happening and for myself, I love the older look, and that they are in black in white. I would just love to go back in time to take photos just like this.  Today's life style just isn't the same as it used to be.  

B&W Reflections

For this B&W Reflection project, we were to take 8-10 photos in color with a theme.  My theme for these photos was a small plastic tub toy thats in a shape of a ducky. The point of this project  was to realize the blackest black or the whitest white spots without losing grey.  Please enjoy my photos of my Ducky.

Ducky getting all ready for summer

The blackest black would be the computer in the reflection of the glasses and the whitest white part would be the light on the roof.

Ducky checking himself out in the mirror

The blackest black point would be past the table which is the wall and the whitest white point would be the duck.

Ducky sitting in the rain looking at his shadow in the puddle

The blackest would be the reflection of the ducky in the puddle and the whitest would be the duck or the little pieces of grass.

Ducky trying to look in the library but with no luck

The blackest black would be the wall and the whitest white would be the blinds inside the library. 

Ducky looking at his shadow in the puddle on the road

The blackest black would be the shadow and the whitest white would be the ducky.

Ducky seeing all the nice cars parked behind him

The blackest black point would be the outside of the car where the whitest white part would be my hand and the ducky.

Where is Ducky?

The blackest black would be inside the rims and the actual tire where the whitest white is the rims.

Mazda logo, Ducky's favorite brand of car

The blackest black would be inside the Mazda logo and the whitest white would be the actual logo.

Ducky trying to find a soul mate on the Iphone screen 

The blackest would be the back on the Iphone screen where you can see Ducky's face and the whitest part would be the Iphone itself. 

Bike Month

Purple BMX Bike

Pedal To The Metal

Sad Red 

The month of May is known as the Bike Month.  For many people, its a great time to bring out the bikes and ride them to school, work or even just around to pick up groceries to save gas, get healthy and fit, even make it environmentally safe for others.  These photos above were taken at my school and they are the most noticeable ones that caught my eye.  I enjoyed taking these photos because of the colors of the bikes and how I touched them up.  

Depth of Field

Close-Ups

Close-Ups are photos that are taken up close of a person or an object with sometimes a blurred background.  For these photos I stayed a distance back, and focused enough so one part of the photo pops out for example, the water drops on the photo below.

This photo is showing the water drops on the pieces of grass.  I liked this photo because when you look at the bigger picture your eye automatically goes right to the rain drops and it just looks very unique. 

For my other example of close-ups, I took a shot of Brianna's eye.  I love the look of her eyelashes and especially the shadow of her eyelashes looks very cool.  This photo could also be used for an example for "Bokeh" with having a blurred background.

Bokeh
Bokeh is a aesthetic quality of the blur in the foreground.  In these photos, the main image looks very clear and close up, whereas, the background looks farther away and is blurred. I found taking these photos very cool because I was able to try different things with focusing.

This photo, I took at the back of the school by the graffiti wall because the wall can have many different views.  In this photo, the wall is the main part of the image where the pond is blurred in the background.

For this photo, I chose a picture I took awhile ago of my puppy Bentley taking his first bath.  I love this photo because his face looks so adorable and he just makes the photo so much better. 

Out Of Focus Foreground

Out of Focus Foreground is when an object is in the way, sometimes hiding the main image your taking a photo of, like in this case is the fence in the way.  You are able to focus it enough where you are able to take away the look of the fence in the way and make it blurry.  I thought taking these photos were very cool because you cannot tell there was a fence in the way. 

This photo is of Brianna posing like a model, standing behind the fence behind the school.  I thought this photo looked very cool because you are looking beyond the fence and seeing Brianna. 

For this one, I like this one a bit better because you cannot see the fence at all unless you take a really hard look. The trees take away from the fence which is very cool.

High Dynamic Range

High Dynamic Range Imaging also know as HDRI or HDR creates an image that looks more brighter, clearer, and more creative.  The correct definition for HDR is a "set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques".  It starts with taking three of the same photo, the first one is dark, second one is normal and the third one is light and all merge in together with using photoshop.   With taking one of these photos, with photoshop you can either make them look darker or more brighter.  

Taxi, New York by Tonist L
This example of HRD of a Taxi in New York caught my eye when  I was looking up HDR because it was very bright and very appealing.  I love the look of the buildboards, how they are extremely bright in the front and dark and gloomy in the back as well as the sky looks amazing.  

Lamborghini Gallardo by Robert Himler 

I love the look of this photo because it shows the unique qualities of the sky and how bright it is.  When I look at this photo it just looks so magical more than the original would look like.  It was taken with 5 exposures(-2,-1, 0, +1, +2).  Also the Gallardo just makes the photo complete.   

Ciryscape of Girona Spain by Unknown

This photo of the lake shows the brightness of the sky, also expanding more of the lake with a brighter reflection.  I love the look of the branches that hover over the photo and just overall its a very bright photo where as there isn't much darkness in the photo where there is in a HDR photo.   

David Walking by Katie Brown

For my HDR, I took a photo of David walking towards the field.  When I edited this photo, it became more brighter and made it stand out more.  Doing this made the photo look 100 times better than the normal photo looked like. It also looks like he is walking into the light.  All together, I think this HDR turned out great. 

Justin Quinnell

Justin Quinnell is a talented photographer and is well known of taking smily cam images, slow light images, black & white, and different types of color images through Pinhole photography.  My three favorites on his site he has posted are "Bert", "Dentist" and "Clifton Suspension Bridge".

The content being used in "Bert" is by using a Sesame Street Character to capture a image in Justin's mouth.  The process is when the shutter takes place when he opens his mouth, exposes the photo paper, takes a quick snap than closes his mouth and the image is not exposed anymore.  I have chosen this image because when I was growing up, I used to love watching Sesame Street, and Bert was one of my favorites, as well as Ernie.

The content being used in "Dentist" is by having a visit at the dentist and surprising the dentist with taking a picture of him without knowing.  The process is the same as the one above, Bert, when the shutter takes place when he opens his mouth, exposes the photo paper, takes a quick snap than closes his mouth so the image is not exposed.  I have chosen this image because I enjoy the fact that his dentist didn't know that he was going to take an image of him while being there.  Also, I like that his teeth have a very rotten look to them.

The content used in this photo "Clifton Suspension Bridge" is having the photo paper being exposed, so that you can see the path of the sun which is called Solargraphy.  The process that he had used was by using a film canister or a pop can and had exposed the photo paper for about six months.  I have chosen this image because I like the modern look of the bridge in the photo and that the path of the sun is perfectly angled.


http://www.pinholephotography.org/