Lange, Dorothea. “Two Children of the Mochida Family Who, with Their Parents, Are Awaiting Evacuation Bus.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, catalog.archives.gov/id/537507. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Dorothea Lange’s World War II photographs are powerful and true to the representation she attempts in her photos. This photo shows 2 girls waiting for a bus to evacuate them to a relocation camp. Lange’s main goal with photos during this time was to “encourage social pleasure” (Gordon). Gordon also writes “that beauty, intelligence, and moral strength are found among people of all circumstances–has profound political implications, of course. Her greatest commitment, though, was to what she called the ‘visual life’” (Gordon). The beauty that is found in this photo is that at this point, the family is still together and able to spend this time they have together before they get sent to the camps, where no one knew what was going to happen.
Although Lange wasn’t going through what these families were going through, she could sense the pain and suffering and the inequality that was going on at the time. Her photos were not used just to look and to move on with your day, but rather to show America what was truly going on. To see what they were doing to these innocent Japanese Americans. The way that Lange photographs her subjects doesn’t change either. It’s usually a portrait instead of a candid shot. There is respect for her subjects in the photo. Each photo of hers has a deeper meaning than the surface-level shot. In this photo, the little girl with the sandwich in her hand was given to her by someone in the church, showing the care that they still had for one another even during this time of distress that they were going through. The 2 sisters being together showing how family sticks together as well is a very important element of this photo. The photo is so much deeper than 2 girls standing with one of them having a sandwich in her hand.
Leave a Reply