War Babies, Richmond, California c. 1944 - 1965

Dorothea Lange made this photograph, in Richmond, California, capturing the particular weight of motherhood, or parenthood, during wartime. You can feel the heaviness of the moment, the seriousness in the eyes of the two young mothers holding their small 'war babies'. It's hard not to think about the pressure and fear Lange must have felt while taking this photograph, trying to capture the truth of that moment. I think of her looking at the women, looking at the babies, and trying to put all of that complexity and emotion into a single, still image. And then, the little girl at the front, stares out at us with such solemnity. It hits me as she becomes a mirror for our own anxieties, our awareness of the weight of history bearing down on these individuals. Lange really understood how to make an image that’s not just about what you see, but about what you feel. And it speaks to me, as I'm sure it speaks to you, about the enduring power of art to connect us to each other, across time.