The work of Dorothea Lange, who captured the Great Depression through her lens and created some of the iconic images of that era. As we go through our own hard times, some retrospect may be what is needed for their contextualization The work of Dorothea Lange, who captured the Great Depression through her lens and created some of the iconic images of that era. As we go through our own hard times, some retrospect may be what is needed for their contextualization.” She had personal challenges in her own life such as a crippling case of polio and later some other chronic health problems. Lange was left with a permanent limp and a spirit determined to conquer it. Because of her physical restriction, her photographs would become ones of contemplation, not confrontation.

Supported by government programs and new picture magazines like LIFE, Dorothea Lange and other photographers of the 1930s and '40s created an indelible record of everyday life in difficult times. The Great Depression caused many photographers to consider the camera as an instrument of social change. Portrait of American photographer Dorothea Lange atop a Ford Model B car in Lange is best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. photographer Dorothea LangeFord Model BDepression Farm Security Administrationphotographer Dorothea LangeFord Model BDepression Farm Security Administration

"Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange captured the face of the American struggle during the Great Depression with her portrait of Florence Owens Thompson. This photograph was one of six Lange shot in February 1936 in California. Florence Thompson was a 32 year old mother who was desperate to find enough field work to keep her seven children from dying. Lange captured the misery of the Depression as well as the rays of hope that many held on to. Florence Thompson was a 32 year old mother who was desperate to find enough field work to keep her seven children from dying. Lange captured the misery of the Depression as well as the rays of hope that many held on to.

Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration. In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience: “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures,working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.” (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960). I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.” (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).

While striving for truth in her photographs, Lange held no fantasy that she or the viewer could understand the ultimately unknowable inner lives of her subjects, believing instead that her best photographs should ask questions.

With an unobtrusive documentary style marked by a gift for composition, gesture and natural light, Lange's photographs elevated her subjects to a place of grace and dignity, despite their desperate conditions.

She continued her intensely personal work after the Depression, creating series on the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II, Irish country life, and postwar suburban California, among many other projects.