September 27, 2018
Terra Foundation Paris Center & Library

Ahead of the opening of Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing, at the Jeu de Paume (October 16, 2018–January 27, 2019), this dialogue explored Lange’s socially engaged work made during the Great Depression and World War II in the United States.

From 1935 to 1939, Lange captured the plight of workers fleeing the Dust Bowl, when drought devastated the Midwest and its agricultural production, creating images that have since become icons of US photographic history. During the 1940s, she documented the internment of Japanese Americans and the migration of laborers who contributed to the war effort at the Richmond, California, shipyards. Lange’s commitment to such subjects offers valuable insight on this period in US history, when fundamental changes marked the social evolution of the country.

Speakers:

• Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Professor Emerita, History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Pia Viewing, Curator, Jeu de Paume

This event was held as part of the annual Semaine des cultures étrangères, organized by the Forum des instituts culturels étrangers à Paris (FICEP).

Videography by Romain Grésillon.