Dorothea Lange

Over the past two years, I've taken Photo I and Photo II at my high school. We've worked solely with manual film cameras, black and white film, and a darkroom. All of my work in that class was done myself. I developed my film in solution, I printed my photos using an enlarger in the darkroom, and I mounted my photos onto matte board. It's been a really incredible experience and I am so glad I chose to take that class my last two years of high school. Now that it's all over, I'm going to miss it but I worked hard to make my last project my best and I can't wait for you all to see my finished pieces.

For this project, I researched Dorothea Lange, a photographer during the Depression who photographed raw emotion and pain. She changed the world with her photos and saved lives by sharing her work with those who didn't know the horror of the Depression. It was so eye-opening to learn about her and because I appreciate her so much, I decided to recreate her style of photography to the best of my ability by taking candid pictures of random people around my town. Some ended up not being candid but they all tell a story, like Lange's photos, and that's what I was going for. Here are my end results. :)

Also, if I can give one piece of advice after finishing this project, it's not to be afraid to ask people if you can photograph them. I had to ask almost everyone I photographed if I could take a picture of them because people get angry otherwise so I learned not to be scared. I got turned down and laughed at PLENTY of times but that's okay. You don't know the people so not only will they not remember you if you make a fool of yourself but they probably won't mind. It can be stressful but it's actually a lot of fun and it's really rewarding. Definitely try it sometime!