Edited by Sam Contis, this artist’s book presents a new window onto the work of the iconic American photographer Dorothea Lange, best known for picturing the social upheaval of the Great Depression. Pulling from Lange’s archive of photographs made in California, where Contis lives and Lange spent her entire career, Contis crafts a lyrical reinterpretation of an artist often framed as a traditional documentary photographer. Rather than arranging Lange’s work thematically or chronologically, the book focuses on formal relationships between photographs, and includes never-before-published images from Lange’s early years in San Francisco together with pictures of her family.
The book’s title, taken from one of Lange’s photographs of signage, is a reference to her many images of sleepers, often workers recovering from their long night shifts, or weary farmers seeking respite from the unforgiving climate. It also alludes to the strange feeling of disorientation and uncertainty that imbues Lange’s work. It is as if the viewer has been left to wander, awake and alone, while the subjects of the photographs lie dreaming, waiting to be awoken in less turbulent times.