Maynard and Dan Dixon c. 1930 - 1969

Dorothea Lange made this photograph, Maynard and Dan Dixon, with a camera, sometime in her lifetime, but we don't know exactly when. It is so human. I think about her, maybe a little nervous, getting close, hoping to capture something real. It is a dance of trust. The hands speak of time, of work, of weathering. A little boy’s hand rests on top of an older man's. Lange is showing us a story of tenderness, of connection between generations. It reminds me of Kathe Kollwitz’s drawings, full of empathy and stark reality. Think about the way we use our hands, to make, to hold, to comfort. It makes you wonder about all the silent conversations happening in plain sight. Lange’s work reminds us to look closer, to see the stories etched in the lines of our bodies, to be grateful for the small moments of humanity that connect us all.