Gandhi's First Act of Civil Disobedience Sparks Vision

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Proverbs 29:18)

A young Gandhi courtesy https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi.

Mahatma Ghandi was raised by a middle class family in India.  He suffered from low self-esteem as a child. One day, he was riding on a train in South Africa.  The porter told him that because of his dark skin, he would have to move to a freight car.  Ghandi refused and was ejected from the train. (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gandhis-first-act-of-civil-disobedience).  From that day on he had a purpose:  to help others overcome discrimination.  His self-esteem blossomed and he went on to be one of the most beloved leaders of the 20th Century (http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/two-ways-to-unlock-your-potential).  

Dorothea Lange grew up in a poor family.  Her father deserted the family when she was 12.  A bout with polio left her one leg permanently damaged.  Embarrassed, she just wanted to disappear.  During the Great Depression, she picked up a camera, and started photographing the homeless, the jobless, the hungry:  she had found her purpose.  In 1940, her photograph collection was displayed at the Modern Museum of Art.  The following year she received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.  Her most famous photograph, Migrant Mother, opened the eyes of the public and government to the plight of Americans during the Great Depression.  As a result the government sent 100,000 pounds of food to the camp where the "migrant mother" was living (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx36c7wAY0Y).

Dorothy Lange doing what she loved best courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange.

Unlock your potential.  Discover your vision or purpose.  It will change your life.

Note:  Read Brian Tracy's Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life:  How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement (https://www.amazon.ca/Change-Your-Thinking-Life-Achievement/dp/0471735388).

The Dust Bowl

Abandoned farm north of Dalhart, Texas circa 1938 courtesy http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/.

John Steinbeck wrote books about it.  Dorothy Lange photographed it.  Woody Guthrie wrote ballads about it.  It was the Great American Dust Bowl.  In the 1930's, the American west was struck by Black Blizzards. Dust choked people's lungs and blinded their eyes.  It invaded people's houses and destroyed their crops. It stopped automobiles and derailed freight trains.   The resulting drought drove tens of thousands of families from their farms.  You can read about the Dirty Thirties in Don Brown's picture book The Great American Dust Bowl (https://www.amazon.ca/Great-American-Dust-Bowl/dp/0547815506).

Famous photo by Dorothea Lange courtesy http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/.

Ken Burns "The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man made ecological disaster in American history in which the frenzied Wheat Boom of the Great Plow Up, followed by a decade long drought during the 1930's nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation" (http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/about/overview/).  

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/

At the turn of the last century, European immigrants, as well as Americans, settled the Great Plains, a grasslands area that had not previously been farmed.  In the 1920's, these farmers enjoyed a wheat boom thanks to advanced technology and the thriving economy in the United States.  However, prices plummeted after the Stock Market Crash of 1929.  Rather than harvesting less wheat, farmers harvested more in an attempt to counteract the effects of the Great Depression.  Fields were left exposed and vulnerable to drought, which hit in 1932 (http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_01.html).

Panic sets in on Wall Street in New York City after Stock Market Crash of 1929 courtesy 

http://www.ask.com/history/caused-stock-market-crash-1929-c5cc6bd779102b35.

The previously fertile soil turned into dirt.  The wind stirred it up and it accumulated into massive clouds called "black blizzards" (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/05/black-blizzard.html). The dust lodged itself in people's homes and in their lungs.  Many developped "dust pneumonia".  No longer able to farm, they joined the mass exodus of Okies headed to California to pick fruit, a journey so aptly illustrated by Steinbeck in his novel The Grapes of Wrath (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2015/11/tom-joads-ill-be-there-speech.html).

Black Blizzard approaches Elkhart, Kansas circa 1937 courtesy https://prairieskies.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/31.jpg.

Ken Burns says that The Dust Bowl is also a story of perseverance. Burns interviewed 26 survivors and shared their stories.  His documentary chronicles the families who struggled to hold onto their land, New Deal programs which kept families afloat, and attempts by government and farmers to develop new strategies of farming and land conservation (http://americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/new_deal_programs.htm).

FDR talks to farmer and his son circa 1936 courtesy http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/.

The Rise & Fall of Photojournalism

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

"Only 5% of readers read the entire article but almost all photos get noticed," according to photographer Juha Kivekas (see "It's All About the Images" at http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2015/02/its-all-about-images.html).

Photojournalism employs images to tell a story.  The photographs are the predominant medium for imparting information.  Roger Fenton is considered the first war photojournalist, capturing images on the battlefield of the Crimean War.  

In the 1870's, John Thomson pioneered the social documentary by photographing haunting images of Victorian London in his book Street Life in London.  His photographs were essentially engravings 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomson_%28photographer%29).

John Thomson's photograph "The Crawlers" courtesy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism#/media/File:Thomson,_The_crawlers.jpg.

In 1880, The Daily Graphic debuted the first halftone photographs.  Seven years later, flash powder was employed, enabling photographers to capture their subjects indoors.  Jacob Riis used this technology in his photographs for How the Other Half Lives.

Photo of children sleeping on Mulberry St., New York City circa 1890 taken by Jacob Riis courtesy  

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/pioneering-social-reformer-jacob-riis-revealed-how-other-half-lives-america-180951546/.

From 1880 to 1910, French agencies Rol, Branger and Chausseau-Flaviens syndicated photos worldwide.  Yet many photographers still used engravings until as late as 1927.

By 1921, the invention of the wire photo enabled photographers to transmit pictures as quickly as news.

The appearance of the 35 mm camera in 1925 ushered in the Golden Age of Photojournalism.  Flash bulbs gave photographers more flexibility by the late 1920's. 

News magazines debuted the photo essay including Germany's Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, followed by France's Vu, the United States' Life and Look; newspapers followed suit like Britain's Picture Post and Daily Mirror, and New York's Daily News.

Life magazine cover from September 2, 1940 on the occasion of the first communion of the Dionne Quintuplets courtesy http://www.lifemagazineconnection.com/images/9-2-40.jpg.

With the photo essay came the official photojournalist.  Henri Cartier Bresson is considered to be the father of modern journalism.  Others followed in his footsteps:  Robert Capa, Romano Cagnom, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Marg Bourke-White and Dorothea Lange.  

Robert Capa, a war photographer, captured pivotal images on Omaha Beach on D-Day.  See my post "Capa's Camera Captures Conflict" at http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2013/09/september-24.html. 

One of Robert Capa's haunting D-Day images courtesy  http://i2.wp.com/www.fleamarketinsiders.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/D-Day-1944-Robert-Capa.jpg?resize=512%2C384.

Dorothy Lange's Migrant Mother photo became the seminal image of the Great Depression.  Read Dorothea Lange:  A Life Beyond Limits (http://www.amazon.com/Dorothea-Lange-Life-Beyond-Limits/dp/039333905X).

Dorothea Lange's Depression-era Migrant Mother courtesy 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism#/media/File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg.

The magazine that became the "standard by which the public judged photography" debuted in 1936.  Life featured oversize 11 x 14 pages with fine engraving screens, high quality inks and glossy paper.  Its photographers often achieved near-celebrity status.  Alfred Eisenstaedt captured a famous image of a woman and child sitting in a desolate Hiroshima after the atom bomb was dropped in 1945.  For more of Eisenstaedt's work, visit http://time.com/3491299/unforgettable-eisenstaedt-22-amazing-photos-by-a-master/.

Alfred Eisenstaedt's surreal image of a woman and child in a desolate Hiroshima after the dropping of the atom bomb circa December 1945 courtesy http://life.time.com/history/wasteland-mother-and-child-hiroshima-1945/#1.

With the invention of digital photography. taking and sending photos has become faster and easier than ever before.  Photographers are no longer limited by a roll of film; a single memory card can hold thousands of images.  With the help of a phone or a laptop, a photographer can send a digital image across the continent in seconds.  

The decline of photojournalism came when the magazines could not compete with other media for ad revenue to sustain their high costs.  Read "Lament for a Dying Field:  Photojournalism" at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/business/media/10photo.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. However, the public had received a strong message from the photojournalists:  the power of still images cannot be denied.  

Mother and child in war torn Chechen capital circa 1996 taken by Laurent Van Der Stockt courtesy http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/business/media/10photo.html?pagewanted=all.