Dorothea Lange was born May 26, 1895 in New Jersey U.S. She was a photojournalist and photographer best known for her photographs during the Great Depression. She was known for humanizing the depression era. She used a camera called the Graflex series D to capture her images.
Dorothea graduated high school and decided she wanted to become a photographer even though she had never operated a camera before. She went to Columbia University in New York City where she studied photography. She was an apprentice for many well known photographers before becoming a known photographer herself. Her early photos mostly consisted of portraits. Soon after Dorothea decided to change her photography from the studio to the streets. She studied homelessness, unemployment, and the struggles of the Great Depression. These photos captured the attention of local photographers, especially her most well known photo “White angel breadline” which is most well known due to the amount of struggle and suffering shown. It is not a super difficult picture but it tells a story.
Dorothea took very natural, organic looking photos that usually told a story about the Depression era. Her photographs helped people see that they are not the only ones going through this and that they are all in this together. It could have inspired people to make a change in society. Dorothea died on October 11 1965 in San Francisco U.S. her photographs really still seen and used today to represent he struggles of the Great Depression.
“Migrant Mother”
“Farm raised”
“Stumpy Valley”
I chose to do research on Dorothea Lange because I found her photographs quite inspiring. I am studying the Great Depression in both History and English and I find it interesting to look at her photos that show how life was like during that time. It was quite different from how it it today and I like to see that. Her photographs also tell a story that gets us thinking about how people’s lives were like.
– Olivia Daniels
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange
http://www.shorpy.com/dorothea-lange-photographs
https://lommen9.home.xs4all.nl/Graflex%20Series%20D/index.html
Olivia Daniels Photos 