Dorothea Lange - Photographs London Tuesday, November 22, 2022 | Phillips

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  • “You know there are moments such as these when time stands still...”
    —Dorothea Lange 
    Dorothea Lange’s charming yet bold photograph of one of San Francisco’s iconic cable cars is typical of her documentary style. Following her successful career as a studio portrait photographer in the 1920s, Lange turned her lens to the streets, photographing the increasing number of people displaced by the harsh economic conditions gripping the country at the outset of the Depression. In subsequent decades, Lange continued to refine and deepen her documentary approach, focusing frequently on her immediate surroundings in the Bay Area. In the present square-format work, Lange’s cropping, camera angle, and composition draw the viewer’s eye to the neatly crossed legs of her subject. It is just such gestures that Lange was so adept at capturing, and this photograph encapsulates the humanising impulse in her work that has kept her images accessible and relevant.

    • Provenance

      Phillips, New York, 13 July 2020, lot 31

    • Literature

      The Photographs of Dorothea Lange, New York: Abrams, 1995, p. 92
      Celebrating A Collection: The Work of Dorothea Lange, Oakland Museum, 1978, p. 89

A VIEW FROM THE GARDEN: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM A PRIVATE COTSWOLDS COLLECTION

3

Cable Car, San Francisco

1956
Gelatin silver print.
25.2 x 25.2 cm (9 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.)
'1163 Euclid Avenue' credit stamp on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for £12,600

Contact Specialist

Rachel Peart
Head of Department, London

RPeart@phillips.com

Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe

YYamaji@phillips.com

General Enquiries
+44 20 7318 4092

Photographs

London Auction 22 November 2022