Vision

I went to college about 90 minutes from where I live, so I have many friends from that time in the area. Our social get-togethers are so frequent that instead of trying to label what they are, we just call each gathering an alumni event.

Today's alumni event was cooked up by me. We met up to check out a fabulous photography exhibit at the National Gallery. Dorothea Lange was a well-known photojournalist. Her Depression-era photos are memorable and include the well-known photo entitled Migrant Mother. Walking through the gallery I studied the close-up of each face in the photos. The eighteen-year-old mother looked more like she was forty. Weathered faces looked outward with a blank stare. They were deep in thought. I can only assume they were wondering how they would get through another day.

I looked at Julie, "The Depression Era is depressing."

"Yea-uh," she replied as she took in a breath.

Lange's work offers a glimpse at life during the Depression and the day-to-day existence of those living in Japanese internment camps. She also traveled to Indonesia, Vietnam, and Ireland. Each close-up she took told a story of its own. 

The quote at the end of the exhibit brought it all together for me. 

"The whole world is a museum. To walk through the streets, as though down a museum corridor... To step into a supermarket as though setting forth in the National Gallery- is an experience and exercise in vision."

Yes, Dorothea Lange was a woman with vision and I thank her for that.