Gordonton, North Carolina, USA
(Dorothea Lange / Library of Congress)
Dorothea Lange’s photograph of a country store on a dirt road in Gordonton, North Carolina, was taken on a Sunday afternoon in July 1939, on behalf of the Farm Security Administration.
Lange’s notes point out the gasoline pump on the right of the door, and a kerosene pump to the left. She also notes, ‘Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. The man standing in the doorway is the brother of the store owner.’ While the pumps and signs no longer exist, the store still stands.
‘My own approach is based upon three considerations: First – hands off! Whenever I photograph I do not molest or tamper with or arrange. Second – a sense of place. I try to picture as part of its surroundings, as having roots. Third – a sense of time. Whatever I photograph, I try to show as having its position in the past or in the present.’
Dorothea Lange
