There are few dates in recent human history that cause more of an emotional stir in historians than that of September 1, 1939. On this day, Adolph Hitler, then chancellor of Germany declared to his parliament (Reichstag) that enough was enough that Danzig in Poland was a German city full of German people and should be taken back. The culmination of the Nazi ideology of “Lebensraum,” in which all lands currently or formerly belonging to Germany should be returned to Germany and inhabited by German people, would soon signal the death of millions of Jews, Russians, homosexuals, gypsies, agitators, allies and non combatants.
Adolph Hitler fought in World War I and like many Germans felt that the treaty of Versailles was a slap in the face to the German nation making them wholly responsible for a war that involved many nations that came into conflict because of the multitudinous pacts that punctuated European politics.
German troops marched into Danzig to reclaim the city and the Danzig Corridor on September 1 by force. It was not the first act by Germany in regards to nullifying the Versailles Treaty but it would become the most significant. The invasion of Poland was a direct result with Hitler’s Non Aggression Pact with Russia and the secret plan for the two nations to invade Poland and divide her up between the to powers. Because of a pact Britain and France had with Poland, they were forced to declare war on Germany on September 3 and just like the First World War, nation after nation followed suit until the disastrous global conflict was played out once again, only this time religion and ethnic persecution would play a large and deadly role. 
Born May 26, 1895 in New Jersey, Dorothea Lange became a pioneer of Depression era photography, giving a real face to the plight of thousands of displaced Americans. Her photos still hang on the walls of America’s greatest museums, a testament to her skill as a photographer and the life she chose to live.
Having studied photography at Columbia University, Lange began her career as a portrait photographer in New York. Itchy feet would make her move quickly and her nation wide travel shows in all of her works. She was in San Francisco when the Depression began to close its grip tightly around the plain states and as the dust bowl grew, she made her way into its depth and began shooting.
“While 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 Lange
In 1935, the government had introduced a number of programs to provide employment for the disposed including many of the nation’s artists. Lange was hired by the Farm Security Administration to go out into the countryside and take pictures of the people and places struck by the Dustbowl, the high unemployment and indeed the rampant starvation of the period. Her pictures are poignant black and white studies that, as Lange liked to say “let you see without the camera.”
In her time, Lange married a painter and an economist exemplifying her fascination with both art and the realities of the world. A depiction of a homeless mother with her two small children wondering if the husband would ever return, her pictures of broken down cars discarded on the trail west, picket lines and bread lines, migrant workers, ruined homesteaders, immigrants, farmers, and every kind of human condition was the subject of her photography. Lange was a part of the documentary film movement that was taken place in America during the 30s when the dreams of the 20s had fallen flat and the nation became a land of realists.
After the Depression, Lange moved on to photographing World War II on the home front. Her subjects went from breadline to internment camp and the faces of migrant farmers were replaced with interred Japanese Americans. Later she traveled to Ireland and Vietnam and her work appeared on the cover of “LIFE” magazine several times. In her final years she taught photography at the California School of Fine Arts and co-founded the photography magazine “Aperture.” Lange passed away after long illness in October of 1965.
One of my favorite Americans will always be Dorothea Lange. She used the camera lens to document real American life on a large scale during a time when the country suffered greatly. Her pictures continue to grace the pages of school books that discuss the depression as her blunt earthy portrayals of life during that era remain unsurpassed by government statistics or even newspaper headlines. Rockwell has his place in depicting the different aspects of American culture but Lange will always remain for me a pioneer of documentary art and a great example as photography as advocate for the people.
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Tags: 1930s America, 1935, American photography, Depression, Depression Era photography, documentary film movement, Dorothea Lange, homesteaders, immigrants, Lange, LIFE magazine, migrant mother, migrant workers, Photography, the dustbowl, World War II, World War II photography, WWII
To our concept of fashion we invariably attach words like style and beauty and the history of admiring beauty is an undeniable aspect of the human experience. Certainly beauty began being put on a pedestal as far back as the first creations of art and mythology and our familiarity with Western civilization’s Goddess of Love and Beauty, Venus, attests to this. Though notions of beauty have varied and continue to vary from culture to culture, it is considered a virtue and worthy of attention. What is more recent and maybe peculiar to some, though not to all, is the beauty pageant and the public ceremony of beauty judgment.
People, men and women alike, have always been able to distinguish among themselves who is deemed more or less attractive according to a cultural norm but the pageantry of beauty is interesting in our time period for the sometimes controversial factors involved and for the questions it raises in an inquisitive and introspective culture. Whether beauty contestants should be judged for more than their appearances, whether contestants have cosmetically enhanced their appearances, whether their public and/or private persona is considered worthy of public celebration, and even the question of how and why we should judge children in beauty pageants are controversies that surface from time to time. That humans experience so much through vision probably means that beauty pageants and judgments based largely on appearances for the public spectacle will remain part of our cultural experience. How we interpret this experience is what is interesting as is how our notions of beauty may change over time.
By 1944, the bombing of German troops, towns and strategic locations had been going on for almost a year but the Allies had yet to launch a full ground invasion of Northern Europe. After much discussion and a number of different proposals, the Allied Powers decided on a coordinated attack beginning on the beaches of Normandy, France. What was to become known as the D-Day invasion was one of the most violent, dramatic and victorious moments for the soldiers and commanders of World War II. 
False information was sent to the Germans suggesting that the invasion would take place further along the coast at Calais, about 150 miles from the actual site. To increase the believability of the deception, American commanders had rubber tanks and planes manufactured and placed them on the English coast at Dover right across the channel from Calais. The dummy squadrons’ also convinced German leaders that the invasion force was much bigger and better equipped that it was. 
The Allies landed at five beaches: Omaha, Utah (American troops), Gold, Juno and Sword (British and Canadian troops). Planes dropped bombs, amphibious tanks rolled out of the water and parachuted soldiers charged the beaches. Despite the element of surprise and the coordinated attack, there were problems. The American beaches suffered the worst. Of the 10,000 plus that died that day, 6,000 were American. Bogged down by German defenses and troubled by miscommunications, many lives were quickly lost. Against all hope, the men fought forward capturing the beaches and wrestling command of France back from the Germans. 
D-Day started on June 6, but the Allies continued to land troops and supplies along the Normandy coast until June 11. By that time, over 300,000 men, 50,000 vehicles and 100,000 tons of support and supplies had landed on the beaches. During the entire invasion 425,000 men were lost on all sides, making D-Day one of the wars most bittersweet successes.
By May of 1937, planes, trains and automobiles were an integral part of modern life. Transatlantic communication was well on its way to becoming the global streamlined system it is today. People crossed the world’s oceans quite regularly. There were a few misadventures along the way, the worst of which would take the lives of 35 people in a matter of seconds. The Hindenburg disaster remains one of the most shocking and spellbinding pieces of film footage in media history. 
The Hindenburg was named for the former president of the Weimar republic, Paul Von Hindenburg. Considered a national hero, President Hindenburg passed away in 1934, never knowing the grisly outcome of his namesake. It was Hindenburg who appointed Hitler to the position of chancellor; a position that would act as springboard towards his ambitions as fuehrer. Hindenburg is thus associated with two disasters: the rise of Hitler and the downfall of transatlantic airships. 
Having thwarted the efforts of an earlier thunderstorm, the Hindenburg was slowly making its way in to land. 200 hundred feet above ground, and just as the first tie line descended, an ominous orange glow became visible. The massive gas filled balloon was about to burst. There were 91 people on board. 33 lost their lives jumping to the ground to avoid the flames. Another two were ravaged by flames. 
The radio broadcast that is most famed by the Hindenburg disaster (with the famously haunting “oh the humanity!” cry from eye witness journalist, Herbert Morrison) was actually the first national coast to coast broadcast in the country. What was meant to be a shining day for the developing media/movie industry became a thunderous marker of what happens when dreams are marred by fate. 
