Dorothea Lange was an American photographer who is famous for having laid the foundation for documentary photography.Dorothea Lange’s quotes became famous as she highlighted the condition of the world during the Great Depression. Getting tired of working in studios alongside Clarence H. White, she went out for fieldwork, and what she encountered changed her perspective of the world.The work of Dorothea Lange teaches people to use a camera to ‘see without a camera.’ Her representation of visual life in some of her famous works won the world over and is very much relevant. Some of her significant captures include ‘White Angel Breadline’, and ‘Migrant Mother’, the latter of which was a capture of Florence Owens Thompson in 1936. Her photographs caught the world’s attention and the government’s attention to help the sufferers of the Great Depression.Dorothea Lange’s works are preserved in several museums, including the Oakland Museum of California, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. She has also been inducted into the 2003 National Women’s Hall of Fame and the California Hall of Fame. These quotes by Dorothea Lange will help you dive into the mind of this creative genius and understand her perspective on life.Dorothea Lange Quotes On SeeingOne of the most significant photographers of all time is Dorothea Lange. Her words, or more importantly, her photographs, helped bring some light onto the world’s condition during the Great Depression era. These quotes by Dorothea Lange will help you gain some perspective on how the world was seen during that era.“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” - ‘Photographs Of A Lifetime’.“I am trying here to say something about the despised, the defeated, the alienated. About death and disaster, about the wounded, the crippled, the helpless, the rootless, the dislocated. About finality. About the last ditch.““While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.““Every image he sees, every photograph he takes, becomes in a sense a self-portrait. The portrait is made more meaningful by intimacy – an intimacy shared not only by the photographer with his subject but by the audience.““This benefit of seeing…can come only if you pause a while, extricate yourself from the maddening mob of quick impressions ceaselessly battering our lives, and look thoughtfully at a quiet image…the viewer must be willing to pause, to look again, to meditate.““Seeing is more than a physiological phenomenon… We see not only with our eyes but with all that we are and all that our culture is. The artist is a professional see-er."“The visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable.” - ‘Daring To Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs And Reports From The Field’.“It is not enough to photograph the obviously picturesque.““We know by now how to photograph poor people. What we don’t know is how to photograph affluence - whose other face is poverty.““I believe that what we call beautiful is generally a by-product.“Dorothea Lange Quotes On Photography (Dorothea Lange quotes show you the endless possibilities of correctly using a camera.)The forefront of the world’s documentary photograph capture changed after the work of Dorothea Lange. Her overwhelming love for cameras and unique style of capturing images caught the immediate attention of people all around the world. These quotes by Dorothea Lange show how she considered the camera and photography as a part of herself and will inspire you to be passionate about your dreams as well.“Put your camera around your neck along with putting on your shoes, and there it is, an appendage of the body that shares your life with you.” - ‘Photographs Of A Lifetime’.“The good photograph is not the object, the consequences of the photograph are the objects.““Photographers stop photographing a subject too soon before they have exhausted the possibilities.““My own approach is based upon three considerations. First – hands off! Whenever I photograph I do not molest or tamper with or arrange. Second – a sense of place. I try to picture as part of its surroundings, as having roots. Third – a sense of time.““So turning, we in our work can speak more than of our subject – we can speak with them; we can more than speak about our subjects – we can speak for them. They, given tongue, will be able to speak with and for us.““The documentary photograph carries with it another thing, a quality in the subject that the artist responds to. It is a photograph which carries the full meaning of the episode or the circumstance or the situation that can only be revealed.““That frame of mind that you need to make fine pictures of a very wonderful subject, you cannot do it by not being lost yourself.““It is no accident that the photographer becomes a photographer any more than the lion tamer becomes a lion tamer.““The best way to go into an unknown territory is to go in ignorant, ignorant as possible, with your mind wide open, as wide open as possible and not having to meet anyone else’s requirement but your own."“I realize more and more what it takes to be a really good photographer. You go in over your head, not just up to your neck.” - ‘The Photographs Of Dorothea Lange’.“One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you’d be stricken blind.” - ‘Daring To Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs And Reports From The Field’.“A documentary photograph is not a factual photograph.” - ‘Photographs Of A Lifetime’.“To live a visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable. I have only touched it, just touched it.“Dorothea Lange Quotes About TimeDorothea Lange believed in the potential of photography and how the correct usage of cameras can change the world. She also believed that photography is a form of time-altering phenomenon. Her take on time is represented by the following Dorothea Lange quotes.“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still."“To know ahead of time what you’re looking for means you’re then only photographing your own preconceptions, which is very limiting, and often false.” - ‘Dorothea Lange: Farm Security Administration photographs, 1935-1939: From The Library Of Congress’.“You know there are moments such as these when time stands still and all you do is hold your breath and hope it will wait for you.” - ‘Photographs Of A Lifetime’.Inspirational Dorothea Lange QuotesDorothea Lange inspired a series of photographers of the modern age. Her works are still used for case studies and are preserved in several significant art museums in America. These Dorothea Lange quotes are sure to inspire you to believe in the superior power of photography and pictures, and how, if used correctly, they can create history.“It came to me that what I had to do was to take pictures and concentrate on people, only people, all kinds of people, people who paid me and people who didn’t."“Life, for people, begins to crumble on the edges; they don’t realize it.” - ‘Dorothea Lange: Farm Security Administration Photographs, 1935-1939: From The Library Of Congress’.“The words that come direct from the people are the greatest… If you substitute one out of your own vocabulary, it disappears before your eyes.” - ‘Daring To Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs And Reports From The Field’.“The contemplation of things as they are, without error of confusion, without substitution or imposture, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention.““To me, beauty appears when one feels deeply, and art is an act of total attention.““Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion…the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.““You go into a room and you know where you’re welcome; you know where you’re unwelcome.““The people who are garrulous and wear their heart on their sleeve and tell you everything, that’s one kind of person, but the fellow who’s hiding behind a tree and hoping you don’t see him is the fellow that you’d better find out why.““Surefire things are deadening to the human spirit."“I many times encountered courage, real courage. Undeniable courage. I’ve heard it said that that was the highest quality of the human animal.” - ‘Dorothea Lange: Farm Security Administration Photographs, 1935-1939: From The Library Of Congress’.“Artists are controlled by the life that beats in them, like the ocean beats on the shore.““Bring the viewer to your side, include him in your thought. He is not a bystander. You have the power to increase his perceptions and conceptions.““I trust my instincts. I don’t distrust them. They haven’t led me astray. It’s when I’ve made up my mind to be efficient that is when I have gone wrong.““I think we conjure up and invent people, and then whoever happens to be there is the recipient of our imagination. A good deal of the attraction between people, I think, is based on the fact that one is able to absorb the creation."“I would like to see photographers become responsible and photography realize its potential.”
Dorothea Lange was an American photographer who is famous for having laid the foundation for documentary photography.
