FREE ESSAY ON DORTHEA LANGE

DORTHEA LANGE

Dorothea LANGE
This report is about Dorothea Lange. The main reason I choose her was because, she was a
women and I thought I could probable wright better about her for that reason.
Dorthea was born in 1895 and died in 1965. Dorthea's first photographic job was as a
commercial portrait photographer in San Francisco in the 1920's. Her first independent
work was taking pictures of native American's in the southwest with her first husband
Maynard Dixon.
In the early 1930 Dorthea got tired of the working in the studio so she decided to head
to the streets. By this time the Great Depression was underway. She was living in
California and had access to a lot of out of work people. Now she was with her second
husband Paul Schuster Taylor, documenting the struggles of all the people in need .
Dorthea would take the pictures of the people and Paul would write essay's to go with
them. She took pictures of family's migrating west to look for job that didn't exist, she
took pictures of the dust bowl and of other numerous thing's. Thing's that showed the
truth of the Depression, what was really happening. During this time she took what is
probably her most famous picture Migrant Mother this picture was a recognized symbol of
the migrant life style. Her pictures showed a urgent need for government assistants in
America. If you think about it, if the Great Depression would of never happened then I
probably wouldn't be doing a report on Dorthea Lange because that 's what really set her
career off. So, I guess that would be a major event that influenced her in her work.
The beginning of WW II brought her to a new turning point in photography. During the war
Dorothea took very vivid pictures of the forced relocation of Japanese American citizens,
they were placed in internment camps. She also took pictures of minority's and women
workers in the shipyards. This showed that everyone could work equally so why shouldn't
they be treated equally. These pictures were some of her last pictures taken in America
because she was stricken with illness. In the 1950's and 60's she over came her illness
by a little and traveled to Ireland, Asia, Egypt, and Midwestern utopian to take a lot of
beautiful pictures. I think I would of liked to of met her just about this time in her
life, the reason being I think she would had a lot of answers for a lot questions I have.
I think her style of photography is very unique in it's own way. It has a sort or
calmness about it, but also a sadness and a touch of reality. 
After her death in 1965 Dorothea Lange's great collection of photograph's became a gift
to the Oakland Museum of California from her husband , Paul Schuster Taylor. The most
Interesting thing I leaned about Dorothea Lange would have to be that, she never wrote a
book documenting her life and all of her great adventures threw out her life.