Dorothea Lange

PHOTOGRAPHER
Walked with a limp all her life as a result of contracting polio as a child
Began photographing the victims of the Depression when she first traveled to San Francisco in her early twenties
The U.S. Resettlement Administration hired her to document daily life in America, and in her travels she took her most famous photograph, titled Migrant Mother, which features a troubled mother with her young children clinging to her
Migrant Mother sharply illustrated the devastation that the Great Depression was wreaking among the poor and working class, galvanizing public sympathy and resulting in federal aid being distributed
Lange's work made a significant impact on the field of documentary photography, revealing that it could be not only an archive but an art form
FIRST woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship
Hired by the U.S. government again during World War II to photograph Japanese Americans in detention camps -- however, the pictures she took were hidden from public view for decades because they were overtly critical of the government's actions
Continued to travel and photograph people all over the world for the rest of her life

Bibliography: Doyle, Caitlin. Girls Can Do Anything: From Sports to Innovation, Art to Politics, Meet Over 200 Women Who Got There First. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2016. Print.

Support this organization dedicated to preserving her story:

Oakland Museum of California

Biographies for Kids and Young Adults

Dorothea's Eyes: Dorothea Lange Photographs the Truth

(picture book)

Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression

(picture book)

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Dorothea Lange

Captured History: Migrant Mother: How a Photograph Defined the Great Depression

Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange

Research

Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning

Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment

Dorothea Lange: Photographs Of A Lifetime

Historical Fiction

Learning to See: A Novel of Dorothea Lange, the Woman Who Revealed the Real America

Spread the word!

documentary: Dorothea Lange: Grab A Hunk of Lightning

Meet more Awesome Women like this

Before her, hardly anyone thought of photography as an art form.

She had almost 100 poems published -- before she was even out of high school.

Can't decide which Awesome Woman to meet next? Place your fate in the Librarian's hands... if you dare! Mwahahaha!

Please note that while Awesome Women Library tries to include links only to media from reputable sources, we cannot attest to the quality or content of any media listed on this website. Our mission is to introduce you to these Awesome Women and give you a wide array of resources for learning more. We haven't read everything listed and are not a recommendation site, nor is this meant to be an exhaustive catalog of every book related to this woman -- there's just too much out there! Happy reading!!