In the Bohemians, Jasmin Darznik writes about Dorathea Lange, the great American documentary photographer known for her Depression-era work and her iconic photograph, Migrant Mother. Her story begins with the arrival of Lange in San Francisco in 1918, where her passion for photography was just growing. “She came to San Francisco as a young woman and she was a bohemian in San Francisco in the 1920’s. So the novel traces her coming-of-age, her friendship with her Chinese-American assistant, and it’s a love letter also to San Francisco.” Throughout the conversation, Darznik discusses growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, the path she took to become a historical novelist, the diverse characters in the Bohemians, the racism occurring during that era, and the parallels between the events of the book with what is happening in our world today.
Women’s history has been so neglected and it’s women historians that are often recovering these stories. That’s been really exciting as a reader, myself, but of course also as a novelist to see this renaissance blooming of history about women’s lives.
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.
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