Adjacent to the African Art Gallery at the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art in Kansas City are a couple of galleries dedicated to
Photography. One displayed works
from the museum's collection that were general and chronological in nature, and
the other contained a focus show of Depression Era images titled "Dignity
versus Despair" with photos by artists who basically made their names
documenting this desperate time in our nation's history. Although I seem to have been
unconsciously drawn to the photos by Dorothea Lange--which confirms her iconic
status in my mind. I will begin
with images from the focus exhibition.
My mother's family grew up in Oklahoma and knew the dust
bowl years well. More than one
uncle and many cousins made this very trek from the despair of western Oklahoma
to California. And what I thought
of when I saw this image was the intro to the TV show "Beverly
Hillbillies"!
"This photograph of the man with his head on this
arms--five years earlier, I would have thought it enough to take a picture of a
man, no more. But now, I wanted to
take a picture of a man as he stood in his world--in this case, a man with his
head down, with his back against the wall, with his livelihood, like the
wheelbarrow, overturned." ~ Dorothea Lange.
"All displaced tenant farmers. The oldest is 33. All Native Americans, none able to vote
because of Texes poll tax. All on
WPA. They support an average four
persons each on $22.80 a month.
Where we gonna go?
How we gonna get there?
What we gonna do?
Who we gonna fight?
If we fight, what we gotta whip?"
~ Dorothea Lange
"Joe's Auto Graveyard, Near Easton, Pennsylvania"
1935, Walker Evans (American) 1903 - 1975
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