Book Review: Day Sleeper
Dorothea Lange / Sam Contis, from 'Day Sleeper' by Dorothea Lange and Sam Contis. Courtesy of MACK.
By Yuhe Yao
Day Sleeper by Dorothea Lange is arguably one of her most unique photobooks. Sam Contis collects Lange’s archives and some unpublished photos according to her own aesthetic approach, creating a brand new fusion. This book is a means for Contis to pay homage to Lange and to continue the work that she left behind.
Dorothea Lange, from ‘Day Sleeper’ by Dorothea Lange and Sam Contis. Library of Congress. Courtesy of MACK.
“At the end of her (Lange’s) life, she talked with regret about what she had accomplished. She felt she had run out of time.”
Contis limited the archived photos presented in this book to those Lange created in California. She visited East Bay, where she drew her inspiration from Lange's way of “photographing constantly, every hour, every conscious hour, and assemble a record of everything to which I have a direct response”. Beyond her artworks, Lange worked for assignments, the “everyday” pictures which showed her family, studio and street scenes in the bay area, revealing Lange’s kinship and a sensitive, intimate side. The concept of “everyday pictures” has continued to influence Contis to the present.
Dorothea Lange / Sam Contis, from 'Day Sleeper' by Dorothea Lange and Sam Contis. Courtesy of MACK.
Dorothea Lange / Sam Contis, from 'Day Sleeper' by Dorothea Lange and Sam Contis. Courtesy of MACK.
Dorothea Lange, from ‘Day Sleeper’ by Dorothea Lange and Sam Contis. Courtesy The National Archives, Washington, DC, and MACK.
The title of the book comes from the visual image of people sleeping in the daytime. In one of Lange's photos, a door is tagged with a sign reading “Day Sleeper": there, sleep implies a lapse in time. It sometimes relates to a dream, nap, or respite. The book makes the viewer appreciate a chance of taking a moment to escape from reality, at least for one second, to feel our dreamlike and strange world. Sleep is an invisible shelter for individuals. Covering the eyes or closing the eyelids, we step into an unfamiliar world removed from where we once were moments before.
Dorothea Lange, from ‘Day Sleeper’ by Dorothea Lange and Sam Contis. Library of Congress. Courtesy of MACK.
Interestingly enough, Day Sleeper does not contain Dorothea Lange’s most well-known photo Migrant Mother, pushing the audience to have a fresh look at the photographer's works and focus more on her conventional life. When she took a photo of her son covering his eyes with pieces of cloth, Lange was conveying her tiredness in life as a human being. At the same time, Lange’s son had become an inseparable part of her life, and life will not be suspended by any circumstances.
Remaining patient, observing a glowing moment, and capturing a fleeting instant are all themes in Lange’s journal and in Day Sleeper.
Contis rewrote Lange’s fragmentary words into an integrated sentence. She wove similar materials, gestures and shapes into a distinct thread. Those small-sized contract sheet pictures work in concert with close-ups of hands to create an intimate aura.
Dorothea Lange, from ‘Day Sleeper’ by Dorothea Lange and Sam Contis. Library of Congress. Courtesy of MACK.
