Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) was an American documentary photographer whose work reshaped public awareness of the Great Depression and influenced generations of visual storytellers. After losing use of her right arm to polio as a child, she pursued photography and studied at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College before opening a portrait studio in San Francisco. In 1935 she joined the Farm Security Administration, traveling across the Dust Bowl states to document the hardships faced by displaced families and migrant workers.

Lange’s most famous image, “Migrant Mother,” captured Florence Owens Thompson and her children in a pea‑picking camp in California, crystallizing the human cost of economic collapse and spurring public support for federal relief programs. Her photographs are noted for their compassion, strong compositional lines, and ability to convey both dignity and desperation.

During World War II, Lange worked for the U.S. Office of War Information, photographing Japanese‑American internment camps and challenging the nation to confront civil liberties violations. After the war she continued to teach, lecture, and publish, leaving behind a vast archive held by the Library of Congress. Lange’s commitment to using photography as a vehicle for social change endures in the work of documentary photographers today.