Dorothea Lange (May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography [1].
She was born in Hoboken, New Jersey to German-American parents, and had one brother, Martin [2]. She dropped her middle name and assumed her mother's maiden name after her father abandoned the family when she was 12 years old, one of two traumatic incidents early in her life. The other was her contraction of polio at age 7, which left her with a weakened right leg and a permanent limp [3][4]. "It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me and humiliated me," Lange once said of her altered gait. "I've never gotten over it, and I am aware of the force and power of it."
After her father left, the family moved from Hoboken, New Jersey to Manhattan's Lower East Side. In 1918, she found herself stuck in San Francisco while traveling. In 1920, she married western painter Maynard Dixon and had two children with him, settled in the Bay Area. They divorced in 1935. She married agricultural economist Paul Schuster Taylor, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley [5]. She traveled throughout California and remained based in Berkeley for the rest of her life.
In 1984, Lange was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum [6]. In 2003, she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame [7]. In 2008, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. Her son accepted the honor in her place [8].
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Categories: California Hall of Fame | International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum | American Photographers | Great Depression | Berkeley, California | National Women's Hall of Fame (United States) | Famous and Influential Photographers | Polio | United States of America, Notables | Notables