Al Italian Center for Camera Photography in Turinover 200 images tell the story of one of the absolute protagonists of twentieth-century documentary photography: Dorothea Lange. Until 8 October it will be possible to admire the snapshots of ‘life and work’ created by the artist between the 1930s and 1940s, the absolute peak of his activity, which document the epochal events that changed the economic and social order of the States.
In particular, between 1931 and 1939 the Southern United States was affected not only by the economic crisis following the Wall Street Crash but also from droughts, sandstorms, floods and floods. In the same years Dorothea Lange was hired by Fsa (Farm Security Administration, the government agency responsible for promoting the policies of the New Deal) to make known to the whole world the exodus of agricultural workers looking for employment in the large plantations of the Central Valley.
Curated by the artistic director of Camera Walter Guadagnini it’s yes Monica Poggi, the exhibition itinerary starts with the images commissioned by Fsa which portray an inhospitable land, in which people try to survive with dignity in spite of adversity. Between temporary camps, roads drawn in the middle of the desert and tragedies of poverty, Lange meets Florence Owens Thompsonthe migrant mother protagonist of the famous shot ‘Migrant mother‘. Like a ‘Madonna with child’, Florence holds a sleeping child in her arms while two others lean on her shoulders with their backs to the photographer. There is no shortage of episodes of city life related to the economic crisis that characterized the 1930s: from the stormed employment offices to protest demonstrations up to strikes.
In 1941, thanks to theAttack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base by Japan and the outbreak of the Second World War, the collaboration relationship with the FSA came to an end. The American government decides to relocate about 110,000 people originating from the Rising Sun within some detention camps set up in abandoned semi-desert areas, removing them from the military area of the Pacific coast. Despite her public disapproval, Dorothea Lange is hired again to document the phases of the new operation led by the newborn with her shots War Relocation Autority. The second cycle of images in the exhibition is dedicated precisely to the native Japanese community in the United States that Lange represents objectively, allowing his closeness to these other vanquished to transpire, reduced to poverty and captivity by the events of history. Accompanied by a catalog published by Dario Cimorelli Editore and supported by Intesa Sanpaolo and Lavazza, the initiative will stop at the Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa from 21 October.