I’ve often said that the term migrants needs to change. Many of these people that you see in the news are refugees — and that’s a mirror of the past that we see in Dorothea Lange’s work. Of course, I’m talking about her famous Migrant Mother photograph. Since then, human attention spans have depleted, and humanity is more likely to take things presented to them as they are vs doing their own research. We also tend to absorb media passively rather than actively or when giving it our 100% full attention and critical thinking. That’s because we’re overloaded with information. And by all means, it’s much more difficult for humanity to get a hold of stuff like this. Over a decade ago, all the news became so depressing that people stopped paying attention to it — but journalists persist in trying to show people what’s going on around the world.
The exhibit will run from November 5, 2023– March 31, 2024. All images used with permission by the National Gallery of Art. All photos are by Dorothea Lange.
NPR states, “It’s an American face, but you could see it today in Yemen, Darfur, Gaza,” in their coverage of Seeing People. The exhibit, which we previously reported on last year, is at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Dorothea’s work says a lot about perspective. And while she and gallerists have done what they can to get the word out, there’s a bigger problem more than half a century after she passed away.
Social media, Google search, YouTube, and various algorithms often don’t let people see all this information. But it’s important that we do — and attach a call to action with it. Gallerists often present the work and tell visitors to judge the work for themselves and draw their own conclusions. Photographers also do the same. But they all often don’t speak enough about artistic intent with their images.
Dorothea was working to get the word out about migrants and all that was happening to them. Her work tries to humanize them and make people realize that America isn’t an us vs them mentality. Instead, we truly are all in this together, and we’re all human.
But let’s get back to the bigger problem: social media. Do you get all your news from social media? Or what about YouTube? At one point, Flipboard was a big traffic source for this website, but it isn’t much of the case now as their algorithms changed to value influencers much more than accredited sources. The point here is the delivery flow. Photographers and photojournalists are working to tell stories, but algorithms don’t necessarily value them because they’re not following the same trends and narratives. Many platforms are designed for profit by a big company and don’t value the information that must be told to us.
With AI becoming a part of our future, we also wondered what Dorothea would’ve thought about it. “She loved the sights, sounds, and smells that make up a sense of community, and she always wanted to find some truth in that experience,” explains Philip Brookman, the associate curator to us. “You don’t get all that with AI.”
So what’s the solution? People who are truly passionate about photography need to go back to galleries and exhibits at museums to see the work of real photographers. For a few minutes, we have to be present and actively participate in absorbing the work of these photographers.
The world of photography isn’t meant to live only online. For several years, it lived in real life through prints and all the different ways that the senses receive the art form. We need to revisit this.