Scandinavian Homesteader, Great Plains, South Dakota c. 1939 - 1959

Here is a photo by Dorothea Lange, who took it somewhere on the Great Plains of South Dakota. I can imagine Lange trying to connect with this woman, this Scandinavian homesteader, feeling a sense of responsibility. What can be expressed with a camera? It's like the homesteader is thinking, I’ve seen some things, I have experience. And what about that door and the wall of leaves behind her? The light feels flat, and everything is evenly distributed. The woman is staring straight at us, and it feels like she's trying to get her story out. The folds in her dress and the weight of her stance seem to say something about her life. Lange did a lot of documentary work like this. We see artists like her, and we see artists now, all influenced by what's come before, all trying to show something of what it is to be alive.