Dorothea Lange

1. Dorothea Lange 1895-1965

2. Her Life Growing Up • Dorothea lived during the Great Depression • She contracted Polio at the age of seven which left her with a limp • Her father left the family at the age of twelve, and never returned again. • Her own life devastation helped her in her work recognizing devastation , and capturing moments that tell about human lives.

3. Her Work • Lange worked in the photography studios of Arnold Genthe and Charles H. Davis. • She attended Clarence H. White's photography class at Columbia University • Moved to San Francisco, where she established a portrait studio in 1919. • “The dignity and total honesty of Lange’s photographs shocked Americans into recognizing the plight of the poor.”(The Annotated Mona Lisa, pg. 153) • She skipped class a lot just to take walks and observe people and their everyday lives.

4. Photographs • Dorothea felt her limp helped connect with people so they felt comfortable enough for her to take their picture. • Dorothea was hired by the Government to document the suffering caused by the Depression.

5. The White Angel Breadline in San Francisco, 1933 First street photograph

6. Japanese Boy awaiting Evacuation, June 1942

7. Migrant Mother, 1936 Lange’s field notes for “Migrant Mother” read: “Camped on the edge of a pea field where the crop had failed in a freeze. The tires had just been sold from the car to buy food. She was 32 years old with seven children.”