Dorothea Lange’s stirring images of migrant farmers and the unemployed have become universally recognized symbols of the Great Depression. Later photographs documenting the internment of Japanese Americans and her travels throughout the world extended her body of work. Watch the video to hear Lange discuss how she began her documentary projects for the Farm Security Administration, and learn how she felt about some of her assignments and subjects.
Video/Audio: Excerpts from Dorothea Lange: Under the Trees and Dorothea Lange: The Closer for Me, 1965, courtesy Thirteen/WNET New York. Interview segments from Dorothea Lange: A Visual Life , 1994, (c)Meg Partridge Films. Following images courtesy of the Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California: Dorothea Lange, American Photographer , Paul S. Taylor; Dorothea Lange and Paul S. Taylor in the Field, Arvin Camp, California , 1936; Ditched, Stalled and Stranded, San Joaquin Valley, California , Dorothea Lange, February 1936; Camp for Migrant Workers- Farm Security Administration, Shafter, California , Dorothea Lange, 1938. Music: No Dough Blues , Arthur “Blind” Blake, (c)Yazoo Records; Boll Weavil , W.A. Lindsey and Alivin Conder, (c)Yazoo Records.