Power farming displaces tenants from the land in the western dry cotton area, Childress County, Texas

June 1938

Dorothea Lange

Associated Names
Dorothea Lange

Artist, American, 1895 - 1965

The image shows a rural scene with a plowed field stretching into the distance. Plowed rows lead towards a wooden house on the right. The horizon is low in the composition, with a vast sky dominating the upper half. The landscape meets the sky at a flat horizon line, with the house as the only structure breaking this line. The color palette is monochromatic in shades of sepia, creating a nostalgic feel. Sharp contrast emphasizes the ridges in the land and the simple geometry of the house.
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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Dorothea Lange, Berkeley, CA; by descent to Helen Dixon, her daughter-in-law, CA, 1965; (RoseGallery, Santa Monica, CA); Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, Van Nuys, CA, 29 December 2000; gift to NGA, 2016.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1939

  • Lange, Dorothea, and Paul Schuster Taylor. An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion. New York, 1939: 73.

1966

  • Museum of Modern Art. Dorothea Lange. Exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1966: 24.

1978

  • Meltzer, Milton. Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life. Toronto, 1978: 225.

1982

  • Hoffman, Michael E., ed. Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime. New York, 1982: 83.

1985

  • Arrow, Jan. Dorothea Lange. London, 1985: n.p.

1994

  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Dorothea Lange: American Photographs. Exh. cat. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 1994: pl. 82.

1995

  • Davis, Keith F. The Photographs of Dorothea Lange. Kansas City, MO, 1995: 73.

2002

  • Borhan, Pierre. Dorothea Lange, the Heart and Mind of a Photographer. Boston, 2002: 90.

2014

  • Gordon, Linda. Dorothea Lange. New York, 2014: 19.

Inscriptions

on verso, vertical along right edge printed in black ink: POWER FARMING DISPLACES TENANTS FROM THE LAND IN THE WESTERN / DRY COTTON AREA TEXAS PANHANDLE / JUNE 1938; artist's stamp, stamped five times in black ink: PHOTOGRAPH BY / DOROTHEA LANGE / 1163 EUCLID AVENUE / BERKELEY / CALIFORNIA; upper left stamped in black ink: PLEASE NOTE: / Kindly Return Unused Photos / to the Division of Information, / Farm Security Administration, / Washington, D.C.; by unknown hand, center in graphite: 182810 / (38127?); lower left stamped in black ink: PLEASE CREDIT / F.S.A. / FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION / PHOTO BY: LANGE; by unknown hand, bottom left in graphite inverted: AWO [?]

Wikidata ID

Q64146691

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