Lange, Dorothea, 1895-1965

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), American documentary photographer and photojournalist, was born Dorothea Margarette Nutzhorn in Hoboken, New Jersey. She worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression.

In the spring of 1942, Dorothea Lange was hired by the War Relocation Authority to document the movement of Japanese-Americans during relocation, and "to travel from San Francisco to points within the states of Calif., Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Utah , New Mexico, and Colorado, and return, visiting these points in such order and as often as may be necessary."

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was a photographer in California.

Lange worked on FSA photograph project during the Depression.

Photographer; California.

Worked on FSA photograph project during the Depression.

Photographer; California.

Worked on FSA photograph project during the Depression.

Biography

The insightful and compassionate photographs of Dorothea Lange (1895 - 1965) have exerted a profound influence on the development of modern documentary photography. Lange's concern for people, her appreciation of the ordinary, and the striking empathy she showed for her subjects make her unique among photographers of her day.

Beginning as a commercial portrait photographer in 1920s San Francisco, Lange's early documentary work included images of Native Americans, made on travels to the Southwest with her first husband, painter Maynard Dixon. By the early 1930s, studio work seemed limited and static to Lange; almost intuitively, she took her camera to the streets, to the breadlines, waterfront strikes, and down-and-out people of Depression-era San Francisco.

In 1935 Lange began her landmark work for the California and Federal Resettlement Administrations (later the Farm Security Administration).

Collaborating with her second husband, labor economist Paul Schuster Taylor, she documented the troubled exodus of farm families escaping the dust bowl as they migrated West in search of work. Lange's documentary style achieved its fullest expression in these years, with photographs such as "Migrant Mother" becoming instantly recognized symbols of the migrant experience. Coupled with Taylor's essays and captions, her photographs were hailed as persuasive evidence of the urgent need for government programs to assist disadvantaged Americans.

Although the coming of World War II brought an end to Lange's FSA work, the war opened a new chapter in her life as a photographer. During the war, Lange documented the forced relocation of Japanese American citizens to internment camps; recorded the efforts of women and minority workers in wartime industries at California shipyards; and covered the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco. Only illness prevented her from completing a1940 Simon Guggenheim Foundation grant to travel the country photographing the American people.

This dedication and compassion drove Lange even during the final years of her life. In the 1950s and 60s she produced vivid photographic essays on Ireland, Asia. Egypt, Midwestern utopian communities, and the post-war industrial scene of the Bay Area.

Dorothea Lange died in 1965. The following year, her unique collection became a gift to the Oakland Museum of California from her husband, Paul Schuster Taylor. The collection includes Lange's personal negative file of more than 25,000 images, over 6,000 vintage prints, and a selection from Lange's personal papers and library.

Long utilized by researchers--as is shown by published books: Dorothea Lange: A Visual Life; Photographing The Second Gold Rush: Dorothea Lange and the Bay Area at War, 1941-1945; and Dorothea Lange's Ireland--the archive is impressive in its depth and breadth.