Lange, Dorothea, 1895–1965, American photographer, b. Hoboken, N.J. From 1916 until 1932, Lange operated a
portrait studio. During the Great Depression she took her camera into the streets of San Francisco where she began
to make exceptionally powerful images of people, which speak of the time and the world in which they were made;
among the best known of these is White Angel Breadline (1933). During the 1930s, California commissioned a report
on the way of life of migrant laborers, and Lange made the report in collaboration with her future husband, Paul
Taylor, an economics professor. Her photographs emphasized the laborers' dignity and pride in an environment of
starkest poverty; the report resulted in the establishment of state-built camps for migrants. From 1935 to 1942 she
worked in the Farm Security Administration, documenting rural America. One of the most famous images from this
period is her iconic Migrant Mother, photographed in California in 1936. Her photographs were reproduced in
thousands of magazines and newspapers, helping to create a national awareness of the farmers' plight and
profoundly influencing American photojournalism by their simplicity and directness. At the outbreak of war with
Japan, Lange documented the mass evacuation of Japanese-Americans to concentration camps. In 1945 she
covered the United Nations Conference in San Francisco, and collapsed from overwork. She did not photograph again
until 1951, when she began to travel, producing photo-essays for Life magazine, e.g., "Three Mormon Towns" (1954)
and "The Irish Country People" (1955). Lange's books include An American Exodus (with Paul Taylor; 1939) and
The American Country Woman (1966).
MLA Citation
"Dorothea Lange." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2013): 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18
Sept. 2013.