Dorothea Lange's Ireland

The photos in this lovely work are a far cry from the selfie photos that proliferate in today's social media. For one thing, the subjects display none of the self-conscious posing that the selfie subjects feel obligated to strike. Lange's subjects are utterly themselves, right down to the dirt under their fingernails and the wind-blown hair. With few exceptions, they do not look straight into the lens, for the photographer has captured them as they go about their daily lives. It is remarkable how the one photo taken by Lange's son and travel companion, Daniel Dixon, and included in the volume stands apart from the Lange photos both in composition and in the way it fails to capture the spirit of its subject. What Dixon did do right, however, was to convey in his essay his mother's goals and methods throughout the six weeks they spent together getting to know Ireland and its people. In apposition to the title of the book, Dixon entitled his essay, "Ireland's Dorothea Lange" because he understood that it was her objective to be "the servant rather than the source of her material," and to "let her subjects speak for themselves." The language they spoke through the medium of her camera is sweet to hear and precious to remember.