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Dorothea Lange, American, 1895 - 1965
Title: Paddy Reynolds from Kilfenora. Ennistymon Fair, County Clare, Ireland, 1954
Date: c.1955
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
16.8 x 24.4 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 2019
Object Number: NGI.2019.207
DescriptionDorothea Lange began her career as a portrait photographer in San Francisco, although it was her iconic images of destitute migrant workers during America's Great Depression of the 1930s that made her name. Inspired by an anthropologist’s book, titled The Irish Countryman, Dorothea Lange persuaded the editors of Life magazine to hire her and her son Daniel Dixon to create a photo-essay about Ireland for their magazine. During the Autumn of 1954, Dorothea Lange photographed for a month in Ireland, mainly in the western county of Clare. Here she met and befriended hard-working people of modest means who, unlike the tenant farmers and displaced migrants of the Great Depression farmed and worked their family-owned land. With her son Daniel Dixon providing text, Lange submitted a story based on her photographs to Life magazine, “Irish Country People”, which was published (in a heavily edited form) in the March 21, 1955 issue. Lange is represented by 4 photographs of Ireland in the NGI collection (NGI.2019.206-209).
ProvenancePrivate collection, California, USA; purchased, Richard Moore Photographs, California, USA, 2019