Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs and Reports from the Field

2008

John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize, 2009
Great Place Book Award, 2009
PROSE Book Award Honorable Mention 2009
Art Book Award, Finalist 2009

“Dorothea Lange has long been regarded as one of the most brilliant photographic witnesses we have ever had to the peoples and landscapes of America, but until now no one has fully appreciated the richness with which she wove images together with words to convey her insights about this nation. We are lucky indeed that Anne Whiston Spirn, herself a gifted photographer and writer, has now recovered Lange’s field notes and woven them into a rich tapestry of texts and images to help us reflect anew on Lange’s extraordinary body of work.” William Cronon, author of Nature’s Metropolis

“Dorothea Lange is known as one of the greatest American photographers, but she was also a remarkable observer whose field notes have largely remained unpublished until now. In Daring to Look, Anne Whiston Spirn, a landscape architect, photographer, and writer herself, has edited Lange’s field notes, adding her own interpretive essays on Lange’s work, and rephotographing some of Lange’s sites. This is a very important book deserving wide readership because it provides a wonderful combination of the socially-conscious work of two gifted artists and writers.” Dolores Hayden, author of Power of Place

“Daring to Look exemplifies Spirn’s particular combination of genius, hard work and humility. The idea of following up on Dorothea Lange’s field notes, and revisiting and re-photographing the places Lange made into icons of the depression years is ingenious. By mobilizing the passage of time, the book brings out the artistic power of Lange’s eye for the landscape and the society shaping it, and the continuing relevancy of Lange’s insights as refocused through Spirn’s own lens.” Kenneth Olwig, author of Nature’s Ideological Landscape

“As a historian, the first aspect of the book that leaps out at me is the thorough and imaginative research in a variety of sources and the broad contextualization in both public policy and social and economic history. The other aspect that leaps out simultaneously is just how beautifully it is produced. It is such a pleasure just to hold and look through. Anne Whiston Spirn’s introduction makes Lange come alive, places her in her time, and just skewers those who would diminish her achievements. In the end, returning to find the places she photographed, was a brilliant idea, and Spirn draws the circle with great sensitivity.” Michael Katz, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

“Dorothea Lange is one of America’s greatest documentary photographers. Daring to Look is a very important book. It provides a fascinating insight into her FSA photographs and writings during that time. Lange’s photographs, especially the work she did for the FSA were a great inspiration for so many photographers, including myself.” Mary Ellen Mark, photographer.

“These images endure, not as relics of the past but as vital, living documents. We stare, the images stare back, and recognition flashes in our eyes.” Los Angeles Times