Photo History Assignment

Above is one of the few images created by Dorothea Lang. She is best known for her photos of migratory farm workers. She was born in 1895 and died in 1965. In this image that was taken off the arizona highway 87 during the time of the great depression, is a grandmother and a sick baby of migratory family in an open field. This black and white picture works well because its revealing what Lang is trying to communicate about the Great Depression. The black and white colors seem to give the image of an old picture which it is. The texture makes the grandmother appear like she is miserable or tired. Land also uses the light well, because you can tell that the background looks dry, and hot. I think Dorothea Langs work is very successful because it is very believable that this was taken during the Great Depression. Because of all the other photos Lang has taken i would not change this because it relates to all of her other pictures describing the farm families during this period of time.

Reflection

I'm really glad i was able to be in the first group to take pictures, so that next time i know what to fix.For my first couple of shots i chose samantha as my model. She worked really well at positioning herself and keeping poses for the pictures. I chose black and white backgrounds to see what fit her color tone better. White seemed to work a bit better since she was light skinned. The process was a bit slow because we were barely learning how to use the fix and start testing and printing. As i saw other students testing and printing i got the hang of it. Most of the pictures i've taken in the past were with digital cameras so it felt good to have a little change. Knowing how to work with the chemicals to develop the film was a good experience also because now i know the actual process in developing the film