Rebecca Dixon Chambers, Sausalito, California 1954

Dorothea Lange made this photograph of Rebecca Dixon Chambers, in Sausalito, California. I love how the gaze meets you head-on; there is something quite defiant about the way she looks back at the camera, while the hands are casually placed behind the head, as if she is relaxing in the sun. Maybe she is thinking, why should I give you anything? The contrast between the light sky and the shadow of her denim jacket really makes her hands and face pop. It is the tonality that makes this such a great photograph. It reminds me of Alice Neel's portraits, especially in the way that Neel was able to capture the spirit and the soul of a person with a few deft marks of her brush. Lange and Neel, I imagine, both artists speaking to each other across time. In photography and painting, one can discover the intimacy and intensity of human experience.