Thursday, March 25, 2010
In the Making 27A
The photo "Alpha Phi Alpha Basketball Team," by James Van Der Zee glamorizes the Harlem Renaissance by photographing a fraternity basketball team. He captures the pride and strength of the team by using a direct perspective and straight lines. He uses the team to represent the greater brotherhood of the community. In contrast Dorthea Lange's, "Migrant Mother" is an example of lamenting a time period. In the simplicity of her image she captures the disparity of the depression. We see a the pain and despair in the mothers face and her children's sorrow. The clarity of the image is a stark image of life, for what the title tells us is a migrant family.
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I too choose photographs depicting the Great Depression as I thought it was in stark contrast to how Van Der Zee depicts his subjects and scenarios. The thing that got me is that the photographs were taken at relatively the same time period - mid to late 20's and 30's. Within a relatively short number of years the climate of the nation completely reverted itself. It does lend some hope to the situation that our nation is currently in. If we got out of it then, we can do it again.
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