{"id":25,"date":"2025-10-27T23:13:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T23:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/?p=25"},"modified":"2025-10-27T23:14:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T23:14:36","slug":"the-seen-versus-unseen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"The Seen Versus Unseen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dorothea Lange\u2019s 1942 photograph of the Mochida children waiting for the evacuation bus during the World War II internment of Japanese Americans in the United States is a very intimate and intense photo as it shows a private moment of people who were feeling exposed by the harsh power of the government (World War II).  It captures two young children with one holding a sandwich, and both wearing an identification tag around their necks, sitting quietly with their family, looking confused for what is going to happen next. This image is a perfect example of Lange\u2019s powerful, often uncomfortable, drive to document the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After watching the documentary \u201cGrab a Hunk of Lightning,\u201d I gathered that Lange first saw herself as just a photographer, however, throughout time she started writing up descriptions and stories of the photos which led to her becoming a journalist that incorporated photos and stories to create impactful pieces. This specific photo was taken by a fuel of empathy, but also with an understanding that the camera was a disruption. As Robert Cole has noted, photographers who “probe and scrutinize the undertow of the world” sometimes “pull down those who do it” (pg. 86), acknowledging the difficult ethical space occupied by the documentarian. Instead of Lange leaving the family and their emotions alone,  she intruded upon moments of personal crisis. Her goal is to never just provide a photograph but she also provides stories, forcing viewers to witness what might be “what some may not want to show.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lange makes visible the emotional cost of photographing and disrupting the innocent family. The required tag symbolizes the dehumanization not only this family had to go through, but many other families had to deal with during World War II. The children are physically present, but their futures and stability are absent and that is what Lange likes to capture, she shows the “parts that aren’t there.” By centering the frame on the two children, Lange captures sorrow this situation has caused. The focus on the unseen is what the core is of Lange’s work, making this photograph another representation of her. Lange, just like families in poverty, was also on the road and she had her own struggles with being a mother. As a result of her location she was drawn to taking photos and sharing experiences of their mothers who struggled with similar things, like this photo with a mother and her kids, uncertain with what was going to happen next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lange, Dorothea. Hayward, California. Two children of the Mochida family who, with their parents, are awaiting evacuation.<\/em> 1942. National Archives and Records Administration, https:\/\/catalog.archives.gov\/id\/537507<\/a>.
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Dorothea Lange\u2019s 1942 photograph of the Mochida children waiting for the evacuation bus during the World War II internment of Japanese Americans in the United States is a very intimate and intense photo as it shows a private moment of people who were feeling exposed by the harsh power of the government (World War II).  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com231.oliviamaytin.bergbuilds.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}