DOROTHEA LANGE 1895 -1965 Famous Woman Photographer
Dorothea Lange metamorphosed from a teenager afflicted with an undersized leg as a result of childhood polio to owner of her own portrait studio at the age of 25 to a famous woman photographer in her 30's in the 1930's. Her mother's pressure to become a school teacher "because it's something you can fall back on" backfired. She revolted at the stereotypical, cultural 1920's careers for women. Dorothea decided she wanted to be a photographer even before she owned a camera.
She was catapulted into the limelight as a famous photographer ( a famous woman photographer in a "man's" occupation) when she published Great Depression photographs of the plight of migrant farm workers.
She said of the migrant mother (Florence Ownes Thompson) sitting beside her tent with her hungry children that "they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed".
"Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange so stirred Washington that 20,000 pounds of food was sent to the starving families on the pea picker farm where the photograph was taken.Most of her famous photographs of migrant works and barren farms were the result of her position as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration (which she was also instrumental in helping start).We are privledged to be able to access and use many of Dorothea's famous photographs, as well as those of Ansel Adams and other famous photographers because they are in the public domain as a result of being taken while the photographer was in the employ of the government.
In 1941 she received the Guggenheim Fellowship for excellence in photography.Around the same time she began recording the internment of Japanese Americans in "Relocation Camps".Her most famous photo from that effort is titled "One Nation, Indivisible". It is a shamefully ironic photograph of young Japanese American children pledging allegiance. You can view it by clicking here.Dorothea Lange's Last Interview for the Smithsonian ArchivesClick Here to access the Smithsonian transcript.
She travelled with the Japanese Americans to the camps. She couldn't stop herself from taking photos of the people at the bottom of the food chain in action. In her Smithsonian interview she said, "I saw those people. And I couldn't wait. I photographed it". She was talking about the trail of ramshackle vehicles carrying stricken families and their meager possessions as they fled the barren dust bowls of the west to migrate to the cities in hope of work and food. But it could have been any of her photo chronicles that compelled her to lift her camera and shoot. She actually wandered the streets stopping to take pictures of the homeless, the jobless and the hopeless.
It was in her heart - a compulsion.Ansel Adams was compelled in a similar way to photograph the High Sierra Mountains, and wait for the best light (Dorothea worked with Ansel at one point). Wherever we are my husband, Tom, is drawn to photograph flowers.But Dorothea's mission was on a different plane. She knew she was portraying history for us - irretrievable moments except on film. In her 1964 interview she said that she knew the nation of farmers had become a nation of city dwellers. And, she was as convinced of the urgent need to commit that decade's culture to film as she had been of the Great Depression Photographs of the 1930's and the horrific injustice to our Japanese American citizens in the 1940's. Her interview reveals her sense of urgency.
We owe Dorothea Lange a great debt of gratitude. She preserved our history for us and generations to come.See Time Line Link BelowI see no reason to reinvent the wheel if someone else has done a good job.There are many resources available to further research the famous photographers found at Joyful Expressions Photography Art. I've pulled some highlights from some of those resources, listed others below, and added my own observations. Click Here for a link to a simple Time Line found at Teacher Link We encourage you to offer comments, and ask questions. The more input we receive the more relevant we can make this site for your specific needs & requirements.Reading ListReading List ------------ Henry J. Kaiser, Western Colosus: An Insider's View, Heiner, Albert P., San Francisco: Halo Books, 1991 Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life, Meltzer, Milton, New York: Farra Straus Giroux, 1978 Dorothea Lange: American Photographs, San Francisco: SFMOMA and Chronicle Books, 1994 Richmond -- Windows to the Past, Cole, Susan D., Richmond: Wildcat Books, 1980 ----------------------------------------------------------- FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT... San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 401 Van Ness Ave. San Francisco, CA 94102-4852 (415) 352-4000 Hours: Mon.-Fri., 10-5; Sat. and Sun. 11-5 Call for admission Price ---Dorothea Lange: American Photographs, Friends and Contemporaries--- on now through September 4, 1994 The Oakland Museum Oak and 10th Streets Oakland CA (510) 834-2413 Hours: Wed.-Sat., 10-5; Sun. 12-5 Call for admission prices ---Photographs by Dorothea Lange--- on permanent exhibit in the California Art Section ---Liberty Ships and Richmond--- in the History section ---Dorothea Lange Collection--- available by special arrangement only Army Corp of Engineers Building, Bay Model 2100 Bridgeway Sausalito, CA (415) 332-3870 Hours: Tue.-Fri., 9-4; Sat. & Sun., 10-6 Admission Free ---Great Liberty Ship Exhibit on Marinship--- Richmond Museum of History 400 Nevin Avenue Richmond, CA 94802 (510) 235-7387 Hours: Thurs., 12-4; Sat. & Sun., 11-4 Admission free ---Expensive exhibits on the history of the area including information on the liberty ships and the Kaiser Shipyards as well as books on local history---
Jeremy O'Brien Liberty Ship
Fort Mason
CREDITSWikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Dorothea Lange; One Nation Indivisible Teacher Link Lesson Plan: Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange Interview, 1964 May22, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Museum of California; Art Department: Dorothea Lange Library of Congress
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