Negro sharecropper with twenty acres. He receives eight cents a day for hoeing cotton. Brazos riverbottoms, near Bryan, Texas  c. 1938 - 1950

Dorothea Lange made this photograph near Bryan, Texas. It shows a Black sharecropper holding a piece of wood to his mouth. The composition and tone are so stark, so raw, you almost feel like you’re there in the Brazos riverbottoms with him. Lange uses light and shadow to emphasize the texture of the wood, the weathered clothing, and the man’s face. The lines of the barbed wire fence cut across the frame, creating a sense of confinement. But look at how the man’s gaze is directed upwards, towards the sky. There’s a sense of dignity and resilience in his posture, despite the harshness of his circumstances. I find myself drawn to the way the light catches on the rough bark of the fence post. It reminds me of the way we cling to what’s solid and enduring in a world that often feels precarious. Like the work of Walker Evans, Lange's contemporary, this is an image that invites contemplation about the human condition, but does so with remarkable grace.