Image of the Day, March 31, 2012

“Every image he sees, every photograph he takes, becomes in a sense a self-portrait. The portrait is made more meaningful by intimacy - an intimacy shared not only by the photographer with his subject but by the audience.” - Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange (1895-1945), Portrait of Maynard Dixon, 1930, 10 x 8 in. On reverse, “John was 2 years old. Made in Lone Pine in red canyon.” Credit: Sotheby’s Dorothea Lange, famous for portraiture and her Great Depression era imagery of migrant families, including her famous “Migrant Mother,” met and married artist Maynard Dixon in 1920. They divorced in 1935, but each has become a legendary figure of the West in their own right and both Lange’s photography and Dixon’s minimalist paintings of the West have become highly collectable. In this photograph, Lange captured Dixon’s contemplative and introverted nature. Lange’s portrait of Dixon is for sale at Sotheby’s on April 3, 2012 for between 7000 and 10,000 dollars.