L

DOROTHEA LANGE

American

One of the twentieth century’s best-known photo-
graphers, Dorothea Lange was devoted to illustrating
the human condition, creating one of the most
widely-reproduced and studied images in photogra-
phy,Migrant Motherof 1936. Although best-known
for her work with the Depression-era Farm Security
Administration, Lange’s passion for her photography
and her subject matter lasted throughout her career.
Born Dorothea Nutzhorn in 1895 in Hoboken,
New Jersey (she later took her mother’s maiden
name), young Dorothea knew she wanted to be a
photographer. At age seven she contracted polio,
leaving her with a lifelong limp, which she felt
marked her life—enabling her to understand what
it was like to be an outsider. During her teenage
years, Lange attended a public school in New York
City and spent much of her time observing the
everyday life around her. After high school, while
studying to be a teacher, Lange announced that she
wanted to become a photographer and embarked
on a self-apprenticeship.
She eventually worked as an assistant in several
portrait studios, notably that of Arnold Genthe,
and befriended many photographers who helped
her to learn the technical aspects of photography.
In 1917, she studied with Clarence White, the well

known Photo-Secessionist, at Columbia University.

A year later, after travels and with few resources,

Lange found herself in San Francisco. Here she met

artist Roi Partridge and his wife, photographer Im-

ogen Cunningham, who would remain lifelong

friends (and whose son Rondal Partridge would

later become her apprentice). Shortly thereafter

she opened a portrait studio (1919) and was soon

established as a prominent portrait photographer,

her aesthetic sense having been influenced both by

Genthe and White. Lange married painter Maynard

Dixon in 1920 (whom she would divorce in 1935).

Lange remained a portraitist for the first 15 years

of her career; her clients were mainly from the indus-

trial and commercial worlds. Her pictures were

often done with a soft focus and were frequently

side profiles or taken at untraditional angles with

natural lighting such as inHarry St John Dixon,

1922 orDorothy Wetmore Gerrity, 1920.

Although she was a sought after portraitist,

Lange changed her photographic subjects after the

stock market crash in 1929 and the ensuing Great

Depression. Lange was compelled by the social cri-

sis to document what was going on, and she took to

the streets to photograph the people around her and

their reactions to the economic decline. This change

of direction was significant and she, from this point

on, dedicated herself to photographing the trou-