Aspects of University of California, Berkeley c. 1942 - 1965

Editor: So, this is Dorothea Lange’s “Aspects of University of California, Berkeley,” a black and white photograph taken somewhere between 1942 and 1965. What strikes me most is the sheer volume of faces – all these young women looking…well, mostly bored. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, I immediately focus on the bench itself – the very means of production that assembles these women. It's a fascinating document of social conditioning. Look at the uniformity in dress and hairstyle, signaling not just a specific era but also the manufacturing of identity on a mass scale. These women become cogs within a social machine – the university system itself – all processed through the same educational structure. Editor: So, you're less interested in the individual portraits and more in the overarching system at play? Curator: Exactly. Lange, known for her documentary work on the dispossessed, shifts her focus here, highlighting the social forces *shaping* these students. Consider the physical act of sitting—the labor involved in conforming to prescribed social roles. What is that bench *doing*? How is it *used*? Editor: That’s a very interesting perspective. It makes you think about the expectations placed upon them, beyond just being students. The image captures a specific moment in time, the material conditions of the university... Curator: Absolutely. It's a tableau of institutional power – a staged photograph showing manufactured consent and normalized gender expectations. Editor: I'd never considered that, seeing beyond just the expressions to the manufacturing process. Thanks, that gave me a new insight into the image's depth. Curator: It all lies in understanding how art mirrors the making and shaping of a society.