Dorothea Lange
Page 64
39. KQED, 15. Several of the most moving letters were from Paul Strand. He and Lange had met in New York, probably through the Photo League, but had rarely been together, yet they felt as comrades in spirit. Paul Strand to DL, three letters 1964 and 1965, JDC; IC to Minor White, September 27, 1964, IC Papers.
40. My information about Ross Taylor comes from a musical biography emailed to me by his son, Paul Wegman Taylor, and interviews with Ross’s wife, Onnie, and his daughter Dyanna.
41. There was a family argument about this: Ross’s mother, Katharine, now a Quaker, wanted him to be a CO, but Paul would not hear of that option.
42. DL to Margot Fanger, March 15, 1964, Fanger family papers. Rondal Partridge recalls that he could hear Ross’s mania in the sound of his horn. In January 1964, he was hospitalized, treated, and then released after a few weeks; he returned to his home and to the orchestra, saying that he now knew he had to be a workhorse not a racehorse.
43. The orchestra played a concert in his memory in February 1965, featuring Ross’s own arrangements for the French horn repertoire. The concert proceeds were used to start a scholarship fund in Ross’s name at San Francisco State, where he taught. His arrangements are still published and played, his students proudly list him as one of their prestigious instructors, and a mouthpiece that he favored on his horn is now called by his name. San Francisco Chronicle, February 21, 1965, and Palo Alto Times, February 9, 1965.
44. Dorothea, despite her own illness, reached out to Onnie with great sensitivity; author’s interview with Onnie Taylor, April 14, 2004.
45. “Doctors are trying to find a way by putting the biggest type of whoozie down. . . .” KQED, 22.
46. KQED 17.
47. KQED 4.
48. KQED 18.
49. KQED 4.
50. “I can have all the dope I want, promised me, I don’t have to worry about that. But the food that I want to eat . . .” KQED 10.
51. Richard Conrat to MM, December 10, 1976.
52. DL to Margot Fanger, October 19, 1957.
53. “If Clark had only stepped in there, quick, and told the police to leave, they should never have been allowed there. . . .” When Phil Greene compared it to Little Rock, she responded, “It’s cumulative memory . . . becoming a symbol.” KQED 20.
54. PST to various family members, December 13, 1964, OM.
55. DL to Margot Fanger, January 10, 1965.
56. KQED 22.
57. She wrote to her cousin Minette: “Suddenly I remembered what you told me years ago, ‘let God do it, why don’t you let God do it?’ Well, that IS what I forgot. . . .” DL to Minette (Minelda Jiras), undated letter, from Jiras.
58. KQED 13.
59. DL to Margot Fanger, September 29, 1959.
60. DL to Margot Fanger, February 10, 1960, and March 15, 1964.
61. Author’s interview with John Dixon, February 2003.
62. Handwritten note, undated, JDC.
63. HM interview with Margot Fanger, January 24, 1999; DL correspondence with Margot Fanger, 1959, 1962; KQED 18.
64. KQED 8.
65. DL to Mary ?, undated letter, JDC; she made a similar request to Arthur (Tex) Goldschmidt, undated letter, JDC.
66. Paul had kept a record of events in his typical tiny notebook. Underneath his notation about her time of death, he wrote, “That’s the measure of your greatness. I’m not going to try to say it again—you gave me my life.” PST diary, JDC; PST notes, OM; PST to Martin Lange, October 13, 1965, OM.
25. Photographer of Democracy
1. John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Minton, Balch & Co., 1934), 325.
2. KQED 20.
3. Sally Stein, “ ‘Good Fences Make Good Neighbors’: American Resistance to Photomontage Between the Wars,” in Montage and Modern Life 1919–1942, ed. Matthew Teitelbaum (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992), 129–89.
4. KQED 6.
5. KQED 15.
6. KQED 26.
7. KQED 15.
8. Becky was already eighteen by the time of Dorothea’s death and remembers her mother’s intensity about this decision. Private communication to author.
9. Clippings in the author’s possession.
10. Tributes in box 68, folders 2 and 5, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Papers, GRI.
11. See http://www.eurekareporter.com/article/080531-local-man-does-more-than-take-pictures.
12. Lindsay Warner, “Art for America,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, June 4, 2008.
13. This is true even in Canada; see Zosia Bielski, “Capturing Pride,” National Post, June 3, 2008.
14. At the time of this writing, Google identifies 130,000 images of it on the Web; there are probably as many or more not identified by this title.
15. See http://www.pbase.com/vhansen/image/67828474.
16. Volume 161, no. 211 (2007).
17. See http://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/02/13-photographs-that-changed-the-world/.
18. This center arose in North Carolina in part as a continuation of the work done there by Howard Odum, Arthur Raper, Margaret Hagood, and Lange.
PHOTOGRAPH SOURCES
Frontispiece: LC-USF34-009058-C
page xii: LoC 009058-C
Scene 1: LNG57016
1.1: Childhood: Helen Dixon
1.2: Helen Dixon
3.1: LNG
3.2: LNG
3.3: LNG
3.4: LNG
4.1: Cal Hist Society
4.2: Becky Jenkins
4.3: CCP Tucson
5.1: Medicine Man Gallery
5.2: LNG
5.3: LNG
5.4: LNG
5.5: LNG
5.6: LNG
5.7: Malcolm Collier
Scene 2: LNG 33001.1
6.1: LNG7548
8.1: LNG
9.1: Helen Dixon
9.2: Bancroft
9.3: Bancroft
9.4: LoC 016292-E
9.5: LoC 016287-E
9.6: LoC 016613-C
9.7: LoC 017223-E
Scene 3: Rondal Partridge
12.1: LoC 019156-C
12.2: LoC 000826-D
12.3: LoC 016206-E
12.4: LoC 009796-E
12.5: LoC 001735-ZE
12.6: LoC 016070-C
12.7: LoC 009972-C
14.1: LoC 002812-E
14.2: LoC 016272-C
14.3: LoC 009666-E
14.4: LoC 009665-E
14.5: LoC 018281-C
14.6: LoC 018170-C
15.1: LoC 018199-E
15.2: LoC 020258-E
15.3: LoC 019849-E
15.4: UNC P3167B/39
15.5: UNC P-3966/2459
15.6: LoC 019786-E
16.1: An American Exodus cover
16.2: An American Exodus
Scene 4: NARA, 210-G-2A95
18.1: BAE 522528
18.2: BAE 522026
19.1: NARA, 210-G-1A72
19.2: NARA, 210-G-2C579
20.1: LNG 42043.8
20.2: LNG 42072.6
20.3: LNG 42084.1
20.4: LNG 42059.4
20.5: LNG 42084.4
Scene 5: Helen Dixon
22.1: LNG 54272.4
22.2: LNG 54279.6
22.3: LNG 54282.5
22.4: Pirkle Jones
22.5: Pirkle Jones
22.6: LNG
22.7: LNG 57154.3
22.8: LNG 57063.16
22.9: Helen Dixon
22.10: LNG 55024.6
22.11: LNG 57013.22
22.12: LNG 59242.10
23.1: LNG
23.2: LNG63114.8
23.3: LNG58257.1
23.4: LNG 58210.2
23.5: LNG 60102.4a
23.6: LNG 58218.17
24.1: LNG 59242.10
24.2: Rondal Partridge
24.3: Rondal Partridge
24.4: Shirley Burden, LNG
24.5: Helen Dixon
24.6: Helen Dixon
24.7: Helen Dixon
Inserts
1: Studio: LNG 5814
2: LNG2068
3: LNG 6053
4: LNG
5: LoC 016153-E
6: Portraits: BAE 522199
7: LoC 009866-C
8: LNG 35035.1
9: LoC 019300-E
10: Loc 017363-C
11: LoC 018675-D
12: LNG 35057.1
13: LoC 019499-E
14: LNG
15: LoC 019799-E
16: LoC 020397-C
17: LoC 019221-C
18: LoC 016425-C
19: LoC 009915-E
20: LoC 019479-C
21: LoC 020211-E
22: LoC 009959-C
23: LoC
24: LoC 019996-E
25: LoC 099599-C
26: An American Exodus
27: LoC 002533
28: LNG 38229.1
29: LNG 38166.5
30: LoC 020250-E
31: LoC 009841-C
32: LoC 018216-E
33 : NARA
34: NARA
35: LNG 45042.6
36: LNG 42102.6
37: LNG
38: LNG 57150.1
39: LNG 56001.7
40: LNG 56002.19
41: LNG 58186.10
42: LNG 93146
43: LNG
44: LNG 63131.3
45: LoC 009270-E
46: LNG 58194.7
47: Helen Dixon
48: LoC 017111-C
INDEX
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Abbott, Berenice, 351
Abbott, Edith, 142–43, 145
action photography, 350
activism, photography of, 133–36
activist photographs, 132
Adams, Ansel, 46, 79, 92, 118, 120, 126, 203, 212, 285, 330–39, 349, 357, 358, 359, 373, 399, 405, 408, 412, 424
Aperture magazine founded by, 350–51
DL’s relationship with, 336–39, 367, 368, 370
Fortune commission of, 331–37
FSA photography project and, 289, 290, 293, 297, 338
in Utah project, 367–70
Addams, Jane, 143
African Americans, 51, 117, 117, 126, 166, 199, 225, 242, 250, 253, 280, 281–82, 296–97, 316, 403, 404
southern, 260, 261, 262, 262, 263, 264–65, 266, 268, 269, 270, 272, 275, 276, 328
in World War II, 328, 329, 332, 333
see also racism
“Again the Covered Wagon” (Lange and Taylor), 166
Agee, James, 281–82
Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), 158, 194, 252, 275
Agriculture Department, U.S., 150, 157–59, 167, 171, 194–95, 198, 199, 203, 217, 230, 250, 263, 265, 268–69, 275, 288, 355, 384, 386
Ahlstrom, Florence “Fronsie,” 27–28, 38–41, 42, 43, 47, 72, 75, 381, 417
Alexander, Will, 194, 196
Alinder, Mary Street, 338
American Exodus, An (Lange and Taylor), 278, 279–86, 283, 284, 351, 410
photographs selected for, 284–85, 286
quoted comments in, 280–81, 282
story line of, 282–83
antimigrant (anti-“Okie”) California police blockade, 256–57
antimigrant nativism, 143, 149, 225–27, 256–58
Aperture, 350–51
Arizona, 39–40, 68, 83, 84–87, 113, 148, 180, 228, 253, 285, 296, 306, 307, 348–49
Arkansas, 274–76
Armory Show (1913), 29, 30
art photography, 28–29, 37, 51, 53, 64, 76, 107–8, 119, 120, 202–4, 209, 281, 286, 349, 359, 412
art photography (continued)
DL’s work as, 349–50, 399, 401–2, 408, 410, 428
Asian travels, 382–93, 398–400, 402, 405, 410, 421, 424, 425
Aspen Institute photographers’ conference, 350–52, 353
Associated Farmers (AF), 150–51, 233, 314, 355, 356
Austin, Mary, 67, 68
Baker, Ray Stannard, 83
Baldwin, Anita, 84–87, 112, 138
Baldwin, C. B., 194, 196
Barthes, Roland, 361
Beard, Mary, 285
Bender, Albert, 53, 91–92, 95, 97, 337
Benjamin, Walter, 60
Berkeley, Calif., xiv, xv, 40, 122, 175–87, 237, 308–13, 379, 381, 401–22, 402, 404, 405, 409
Bierce, Ambrose, 68, 69
birth control, 195–96, 273, 294, 362, 403
Bloch, Ernest, 63, 63, 130
Blythe, Calif., 247, 248
bohemianism, xvi, xx, 24, 31, 47, 52, 57, 58, 75, 77, 84, 89, 107, 153
of Dixon, 65, 67, 72, 78–79, 107, 126, 186
of Greenwich Village, 36, 40, 351
homosexuality and, 53, 91–92, 120
political ambiguity of, 125–26
Boumphrey, Jack, 44
Bourke-White, Margaret, 36, 46, 128, 130, 220, 280–81, 294, 305, 316, 336, 379, 393
Boynton, Ray, 95
Breckenridge, Sophonisba, 143
Bremer, Ann, 91–92
Brigman, Anne, 29, 49, 50, 78–79
Brooklyn Museum, 53
Bruere, Martha Bensley, 26
Bry, Michael, 352
Bubley, Esther, 199, 207, 220
Butler, J. R., 275
Butler, Nicholas Murray, 32
Byrd, Harry, 196
Caen, Herb, 378
Caldwell, Erskine, 280–81
California, University of, at Berkeley (UCB), 56, 142–43, 150–54, 158, 186–87, 200, 299, 315, 330, 331, 356–57, 395, 404, 412, 416
Calipatria, Calif., 163, 246
camera clubs, 44, 45, 200
cameras, xiii, xvii–xviii, 28, 39, 92, 132, 293, 299, 315, 317, 353
devices for, 131–32, 292, 404
East Kodak box, 31–32
fast-action Leica, 128, 350, 404
Graflex single-lens reflex, 34, 116, 132, 211
Rolleiflex, 132, 157, 211, 212
35-mm, 211–12, 387
Zeiss Juwell, 211
Capa, Robert, 128, 234, 350
Carmel, Calif., 83, 92, 119, 126, 152, 337–38
Carter, Paul, 200, 206
Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 350, 410, 424
celebrity photographers, 32, 35, 53, 62–63
Chatham County, N.C., 262
Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants, 33, 43, 47, 92, 117, 325, 329, 332
as farmworkers, 148, 225, 257, 258
civil rights movement, xv, xx, 193, 228, 274–75, 276, 361, 385, 402, 403, 411, 412, 416, 428
Clausen, Gertrude, 57, 106–7
Coachella Valley, Calif., 216
Cold War, xx, 346, 355, 358, 359, 361, 362, 363, 384–87, 395–96, 403, 425
Coles, Robert, 24, 242
Collier, John, Jr., 88–89, 89, 90, 97, 115, 186, 202, 205
Collier, John, Sr., 55, 88
Collins, Isabel Porter, 66
Collins, Tom, 228, 230
Columbia University, 32, 35–37, 142, 193–94, 198, 200
commercial photography, 117–18, 129, 197
Commons, John R., 142, 145
Communist party, Communists, 95–96, 109, 126–27, 274, 316, 358
anticommunism, 84, 124, 129–30, 131, 134, 168, 198, 227, 356, 384–85, 395; see also McCarthyism
as union organizers, 149, 151, 227, 229, 274–75
Conrat, Richard, 399–400, 404–5, 406, 415
Coppa, “Papa” Giuseppe, 67, 78, 92, 186
cotton, 150, 151, 164, 165, 201, 211, 233–34, 250–51, 267, 268, 270, 273, 283, 285
County Clare, Ireland, 371, 372
Cunningham, Imogen, xxii, 41, 49–50, 51, 54, 64, 72, 76, 79, 91, 107, 112, 118, 120, 157, 159, 172, 180, 212, 415, 424
Dahl-Wolfe, Louise, 49, 54, 117, 118
Davenport, Homer, 67
Davis, James E., 256–57
Delano, Irene, 207, 210
Delano, Jack, xix, 199, 205–6, 207, 240, 263–64, 280, 297
Dellums, C. L., 316
Delta Cooperative Farm, 276–78
Delta King riverboat, 112
democracy, xiii, xiv, xix, xx, xxiii, 36, 95, 125, 157, 160, 199, 221, 229, 243, 256, 266, 318, 359
DL as photographer of, 423–30
foreign rural, 384–87, 394–95
social realism and, 219
visual, xii–xix, xxiii, 423–30
Depression era, xiv–xv, xx, 55, 58, 93–100, 105–87, 193–300, 351, 363, 428
anticommunism in, 124, 129–30, 131, 134, 168, 198, 227
anti-Semitism in, 124–25
artists in, 94–97, 106, 123, 125–27, 128–31, 196, 203
breadlines in, 94, 102, 115–16, 131
political activism in, 122, 125–27, 132–36, 187, 194
progression of, 93–94, 124
as structural economic crisis, 199, 221–22
unemployment in, 93–94, 100, 106, 115, 121–23, 124, 128, 133, 156–57, 324, 332
workers’ strikes in, 133, 134–36, 149–50, 155, 165
Dewey, John, 32, 36, 82, 126, 133
de Young, Mike, 43, 55, 97
Dies, Martin, Jr., 355
Dixon, Constance “Consie,” 70, 71, 71, 77, 78, 79–83, 90, 108, 176, 427
Becky, daughter of, 185–86
DL’s photographs of, 82, 82
DL’s relationship with, 80–82, 83, 87–89, 97, 176, 180, 185–86
John Collier, Jr., and, 89, 97, 186
placing out of, 83, 84
in Taos, 97, 98
Dixon, Daniel Rhodes, xvi, xxi, 56, 57, 86, 87–88, 90–91, 105, 112, 136–39, 259, 308–10, 339, 349, 416, 422, 427
in blended family, 175–85
in Ireland, 370, 373
military service of, 309, 347
parents’ divorce and, 172
placing out of, 108–10, 111, 136, 161, 173–74, 176–80, 308
in Taos, 97–98, 100, 106
in Utah project, 367–70
wedding of, 365
Dixon, Edith Hamlin, 180, 348–49
Dixon, Harry St. John, 76, 179
Dixon, Helen, 179, 182, 365, 380–81, 381, 383, 392, 394, 415, 416
Dixon, John (Goodnews) Eaglefeather, xvi, xxi, 56, 57, 86, 87–88, 90, 105, 112, 136–39, 182, 309–10, 313, 339, 365, 374, 383, 394, 416, 422
in blended family, 175–85
placing out of, 108–10, 111, 136, 161, 173–74, 176–80
in Taos, 97–98, 100, 106
Dixon, Maynard, xv, xvi, xviii, xxii, 50, 53–54, 65–74, 66, 75–100, 76, 86, 121, 122, 129, 132, 151, 157, 168, 185, 223–24, 308, 310, 367, 382–84, 417
anti-Semitism of, 91–92
artist friends of, 67, 68, 72, 78–79, 92, 172
asthma and emphysema of, 130, 138, 180, 349
in Bohemian Club, 68–69, 70, 79, 93
bohemian social life of, 65, 67, 72, 78–79, 107, 126, 186