Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/01/25

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Subject: Re: [Leica] OT- Dorothea Lange
From: "Will" <wlarsen@ocsnet.net>
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 17:33:46 -0800
References: <000501c1a5f5$e398d860$6401a8c0@attbi.com>

Dorothea Lange is one of the photographers that helps me
keep sane about being less than perfect, both in photography
and life in general.  The results of her work had a
tremendous effect on certain elements of the social system,
particularly here in the Central Valley of California and
other farming regions where migrant workers are prevalent.
But as a photographic technician  and in other areas of her
life, she was apparently much less than perfect.  (How does
one lose the results of six months of shooting when working
on what was essentially a contract basis for the
government)?

I see a lot of self doubt on the LUG and the IRC #Leica
group about the quality of their work, worries about
offending someone, worries about being too shy.  I see
people madly trying 50 different film emulsions,  people
worrying about what developer to use...worrying about not
understanding the zone system....

Whenever I recognize that I am feeling these doubts and am
getting overly technical, I re-read Lange's biography (I use
the Meltzer biography)...and realize that I am human and I
am not dead yet...so onward and upward, as it were.

Of course my favorite Ansel Adams' photographs are "Family
at Melones" (1953) and "Annette Rosenshine" (1968), so take
my comment within that context.

Regards, Bill Larsen
from California's Heartland

Oliver Bryk writes:
| A few days ago I visited the Dorothea Lange exhibit at the
National
| Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA. (Lange's prints are on
loan from the
| Oakland Museum). One of her prominently displayed
quotations reads: "One
| should use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken
blind."
| Oliver Bryk


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In reply to: Message from "Oliver Bryk" <oliverbryk@attbi.com> ([Leica] OT- Dorothea Lange)