this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
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Lange was first and foremost a documentarian who saw herself as an activist. Her most famous work was done for the US Farm Services Administration during the depression (e.g., her iconic "Migrant Mother" portrait). She sought to use photography to expose injustice and improve the world.
Adams, on the other hand, saw himself first and foremost as an artist. He sought to elevate photography as an art form.
(They were close, with deep mutual respect.)
This is, of course, an oversimplification. Lange was an obvious master of formal composition as well as the technical craft of photography, and Adams, who served for decades on the board of the Sierra Club, fully understood the power of photography to influence public and political opinion. But the two approached their artistic practice from very different perspectives.