A Day Spent with Dorothea Lange and Great Friends

“One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you’d be stricken blind.  To live a visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable.  I have only touched it, just touched it.”

-Dorothea Lange

I had been looking forward to visiting the Dorothea Lange exhibit, America, for some time now.  Realizing that I had a weekend free of travel plans, I reached out to some friends to see if they would be interested in joining me to go to the exhibit in Winston-Salem, NC.  The exhibit will be at the 

Reynolda House Museum of American Art until the end of December.

I like to prepare myself before going to an exhibit.  I am currently listening to Dorothea Lange A Life Beyond Limit by Linda Gordon from Audible.  I also spent time reading Dorothea Lange:  Grab a Hunk of Lightning by Elizabeth Partridge.  If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch American Masters – Dorthea Lange  Grab a Hunk of Lightning for free.  It is a fabulous documentary.  I know that I get so much more from visiting an exhibit if I prepare myself with knowledge about the visual artist before I visit his or her work.

The drive to Winston-Salem took me about two hours.  I ended up arriving a bit before I had arranged to meet my friends, so I stopped at Reynolda Gardens to see what my camera and I could find there.  Since there wasn’t much going on in the outdoor areas this time of year, I went inside the greenhouse.  I found a very festive area of the greenhouse where the poinsettias were waiting for their Christmas locations.

Once my friends arrived, I walked over to the Reynolda House to meet them.  The Dorothea Lange exhibit was at the house.  We thoroughly enjoyed spending time in the exhibit.

I find that no matter how much I study before viewing an exhibit, I always learn something that didn’t dawn on me while I am there viewing the photographs.  Additionally, even though I had seen many of the photographs in books, there is nothing better than seeing the actual prints.

After we finished looking at the exhibit, we walked through Reynolda house, enjoying the holiday decorations.  They only allow photography in two areas of the house.  I was thankful that one of those areas was the pool.  As much as I love to swim, I would be thrilled to have an opportunity to swim in such a gorgeous location.

My friends and I finished our time together by sitting down to a wonderful lunch where we discussed the exhibit and other things about photography.  It was an incredible morning.

The exhibit will be in Winston-Salem until December 30 if you would like to go.

Since I was in Winston-Salem and just miles away from Old Salem,  I decided to take a look there before making the return trip home.

I hope you will check in later this week to see what I was able to find at Old Salem.