Helen Vernallis, near Tracy, California 1949

Dorothea Lange took this photograph of Helen Vernallis, near Tracy, California. It's a portrait of a woman, seen from below, a dramatic angle that emphasizes her stature against a sky full of soft, feathery clouds. You know, I can just imagine Lange, positioning herself, maybe even laying on the ground, to get this shot. There's something about the way the woman stands, hands on her lower back, gazing off into the distance. I wonder what she's looking at, what she's thinking. Maybe she's tired, or contemplative, or maybe she’s just taking a moment to breathe it all in. It's like a painting, where every element—the light, the composition, the subject's pose—works together to tell a story, a story that's both specific to this moment and universal in its exploration of human experience. Lange's work reminds us that artists are always in conversation, each one building on what came before, and inspiring what will come next.