Often, she began by photographing the inquisitive children clustered around her. Only after slow, patient explanations would Dorothea take out her camera. She told them she worked for the government and wanted to take photos so the people back in Washington could see what their lives were like. Ron watched as Dorothea gained the trust of the migrant workers. When we saw something-a broken car, a camp of migrants, a field boss-we would stop." "I'd be going twenty miles an hour," Ron recounted, "and she'd say, `Slow down, Ron, slow down.' Her eyes would go from one side of the road to the other, taking in every little thing. Dorothea was photographing for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), documenting the appalling rural conditions created by the Great Depression, and she relied on Ron to drive her up and down the back roads of California.
It was 1936 when Ron first jumped behind the steering wheel of Dorothea's Model A Ford. When Ron decided he wanted to be a photographer, Imogen taught him all she knew, then sent him to work with Dorothea.
Imogen had three sons, Dorothea two, and the boys were in and out of each other's homes growing up. Both photographers, they were married to artists and were part of the lively, free-spirited San Francisco bohemian art scene. His mother, Imogen Cunningham, and Dorothea were close friends. My father already knew Dorothea when he apprenticed with her. In return, she fed him, paid him a dollar a week, and immersed him in her unique way of seeing the world. He packed her bags, cleaned and fixed her cameras, and spent long hours in the darkroom developing and printing her photographs.
My father, Ron Partridge, was 17 when he went to work for photographer Dorothea Lange. ALA Upcoming Annual Conferences & LibLearnXīook Links: May 1999 (v.8 no.5) Growing up with Photographer Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge.Related Groups, Organizations, Affiliates & Chapters.Dealing with censorship challenges at your library or need to get prepared for them? Visit our Fight Censorship page for easy-to-access resources.
0 kommentar(er)
