[Nonfiction Wednesday] Reinventing One’s Self Through A Camera Lens

Myra here.

We are delighted to join the Nonfiction Picture Book meme 2019 hosted by Alyson Beecher @ Kid Lit Frenzy. We would also be linking our nonfiction choices with our reading themes throughout the year, when we can.

---

Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found The Faces Of The Depression

Written by Carole Boston Weatherford Illustrated by Sarah Green
Published by Albert Whitman Company (2017).
ISBN: 0807516996 (ISBN13: 9780807516997)
Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

The story begins by showing how Dorothea Lange felt largely like an outsider when she was young due to her childhood polio.

This, and the fact that she did not particularly distinguish herself in school, made her fade somewhat into the background. That is, until she redefined herself through a camera lens in her resolve to become a photographer.

It took a failed marriage, a stock market crash, and finding a kindred in an Economics professor for Dorothea to finally understand what she is meant to do: tell stories through her photographs, particularly portraits of people from various walks of life.

I initially found the story to be confusing, since it was not articulated that Dorothea was divorced – so it appeared that she got married twice. This only became clearer in the Author’s Note found at the end of the book.

Apparently, there is another picturebook biography on Dorothea Lange’s life – which unfortunately, is not yet available in our libraries, but definitely worth checking out.

Dorothea’s Eyes by Barb Rosenstock and Gerard DuBois.

Regardless, this is a good book to add to the many titles out there showing the lives of amazing photographers similar to the ones found below:

Photographic: The Life Of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero and Zeke Peña (see my review here).

Polka Dot Parade: A Book About Bill Cunningham by Deborah Blumenthal and Masha D’Yans (see my review here).

Gordon Parks: How The Photographer Captured Black And White America by Carole Boston Weatherford and Jamey Christoph (see my review here).

The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan With Doctors Without Borders by Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefevre and Frederic Lemercier with translations by Alexis Siegel (see my review here).

---

#WomenReadWomen2019: United States of America