Dorothea Langue and Her Impact on American Hitory

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they could not help each other much. When Americans were unable to pay for food, many would stand in lines which are known as “Bread Lines”. The bread lines can be dangerous at times because many men and women are fighting against each other in order to get a free meal. Most of the time many were not able to get any food because the people who handed out the meals often ran out of food to give. Dorothy’s first “street” and widely known photo was known as the “White Angel Breadline”. This picture was taken in the streets of San Francisco, California in the year of 1933 (The My Hero Project). This picture shows the desperate condition of these men and women who were publicly exhibited and received immediate recognition both from the public and from other photographers (Britannica).

Other photographs that Dorothea took to draw attention on the poor and forgotten was photos of the migrants who were moving to California. In the year of 1933 a series of terrible droughts began, because of the droughts many farmers farms were ruined. Then between the years of 1935 and 1940, many citizens left home and set out to California to find jobs (Patridge, Page 52). Many of the migrants during the Great Depression had to live in shacks made out of cardboard, box cars, etc because they couldn’t afford to do anything else. In an Excerpt from Daring to Look by Anne Whiston Spirn it says that in January 1935, Lange, on her first trip for the new job, accompanied Taylor to California’s Imperial Valley to observe and report on farm laborers living in hovels made of cartons, branches, and scraps of wood and cloth, with primitive privies, no waste disposal, no potable water. Also in many other camps such as the one in San Joaquin Valley, California, Dorothea took a photo of a young boy standing in front of a run down tent (Patridge, Page 61). Also on this page it says that many of the migrant workers settled into shantytowns near rivers because this way they are able to get free water.

Dorothea Lange influenced political decisions in many ways. Sense her photograph Migrant Mother had such a big emotional response from Americans; she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1941 (iphf.org). Yet declined after being offered a job with the War Relocation Authority (WRA). Lange’s socio-realistic manner saw her recording the internment of Japanese-American civilians during World War II and, similarly to Migrant Mother, her photos powerfully encapsulate the suffering underpinned with relatable humanity (iphf.org). Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dorothea took many photos of the Japanese Americans. She took photos of the families as they were being evacuated from their homes and being sent to prison camps (The My Hero Project). She was very disgusted that the government would lock people up if the haven’t done anything wrong to harm the country. She photographed the Mochida family awaiting an evacuation bus in 1942 (The Art Story). “Identification tags are used to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation.[...] Evacuees of Japanese ancestry would be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. The solemnity and portrait style of this photograph counteracts the indignity of the Mochida family’s pending interment. The tags that hang from their clothing are clearly displayed, echoing those on their luggage and drawing attention to their treatment as less than human…”(The Art Story).

Dorothea’s images of the community were so compelling and so critical of the situation that the Army impounded them; they were seen by no one—including Lange herself—for more than twenty years (PBS.org). The Army kept them hidden for so long because since World War Two was going on they thought that if the enemies saw the photographs it would help them in some way. Also since she documented the lives and needs of the people whose lives were impacted, both positively and negatively, by the New Deal and domestic wartime policies of the Roosevelt years. These years nourished Dorothea Lange’s creative talents. These years yielded photographs that made Dorothea Lange the most widely published government photographer of the 1930s. And these years made Dorothea Lange who she was: the visual messenger of America’s “everyman.” (Profile of Dorothea Lange). Lange’s FSA photographs served as a political tool, for they helped the nation see the effects of the Depression on an individual level and challenged the agricultural practices and policies of the time. With the help of the FSA, Lange’s pictures brought issues like family suffering and unfortunate working conditions to light. Lange’s photographs gave a face to the distress and suffering of the nation, and spread awareness throughout the country (Dorothea Lange’s Social Vision:Photography and the Great Depression).

After World War II, Lange created a number of photo-essays, including Mormon Villages and The Irish Countryman, for Life magazine (Britannia). Also many of her photographs impacted many other Americans, and made them realize that many of these people did not deserve to live this way. Her photographs also appeared in several exhibitions during these decades including three exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City. These exhibits, organized by Edward Steichen, were “Sixty Prints by Six Women Photographers” (1949), “The Family of Man” (1952), and “The Bitter Years” (1962). Yet it was the final exhibition a one-person show at the Museum of Modern Art of New York, that gave Dorothea Lange her greatest satisfaction (Profile of Dorothea Lange).

After Dorothea’s last trip in the Middle East, her health took a turn for the worst (Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange). She was breaking out with fevers and no matter how hard the Doctors tried to stop her from becoming so sick the fevers came back. The doctors’ discovered that she had Malaria and began quinine treatment (Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange). A year later after the doctors thought she was improving she was diagnosed with cancer. Dorothea died of cancer on October 11, 1965. During her last few years she worked with the Museum of Modern Art again, producing a retrospective show, which opened several months after her death. Dorothea Lange was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in 1984 (iphf.org).

Dorothea Lange greatly influenced the times of the Great Depression and captured the attention of many people. Not only did she influence the people that were well off, but the victims as well. Dorothea Lange impacted the world in such a huge way that she showed others what the poor and forgotten looked like, showed who Americans really were, and influenced political decisions. Her photographs

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