The Bohemians

The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik (2021). 

Other than an apparently factual error in Chapter 6 - she used an “old Leica” in 1918 - this Dorothea Lange historical fiction was fascinating. The story fit into what I know about her actual life, focusing on her time as a portrait photographer in San Francisco, with the historically vague character of  “Ah-yee” or the “Chinese Mission Girl” fleshed out as “Caroline Lee”. It seemed a little hurried when it raced past the Migrant Mother episode to Dorothea and Caroline’s closure meeting in Paris years later, and I would have liked a little film/developer information to go along with the constant references to her Graflex. Four out of five f/stops. (A new Lange bio has just come out so I’m sure I will be reading it soon.)    

 

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