No country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually.
DOROTHEA LANGENo country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually.
DOROTHEA LANGE… it came to me that what I had to do was to take pictures and concentrate upon people, only people, all kinds of people, people who paid me and people who didn’t.
DOROTHEA LANGEI many times encountered courage, real courage. Undeniable courage. I’ve heard it said that that was the highest quality of the human animal.
DOROTHEA LANGEThis benefit of seeing…can come only if you pause a while, extricate yourself from the maddening mob of quick impressions ceaselessly battering our lives, and look thoughtfully at a quiet image…the viewer must be willing to pause, to look again, to meditate.
DOROTHEA LANGETo me, beauty appears when one feels deeply, and art is an act of total attention.
DOROTHEA LANGEWhile there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.
DOROTHEA LANGEThe camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
DOROTHEA LANGEOne should really use the camera as though tomorrow you’d be stricken blind.
DOROTHEA LANGETo live a visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable. I have only touched it, just touched it.
DOROTHEA LANGEBring the viewer to your side, include him in your thought. He is not a bystander.
DOROTHEA LANGEBeing disabled gave me an immense advantage. People are kinder to you. It puts you on a different level than if you go into a situation whole and secure.
DOROTHEA LANGEYou go into a room and you know where you’re welcome; you know where you’re unwelcome.
DOROTHEA LANGEIt is not enough to photograph the obviously picturesque.
DOROTHEA LANGEThe camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
DOROTHEA LANGEArtists are controlled by the life that beats in them, like the ocean beats on the shore.
DOROTHEA LANGEYou know there are moments such as these when time stands still and all you do is hold your breath and hope it will wait for you.
DOROTHEA LANGE