Dorothea Lange art photographs & prints

Dorothea Lange, a major figure in American documentary photography, left her mark on an entire page of history with her poignant and committed photographs. Her career, intimately linked to the social upheavals of the 20th century, is part of a profoundly humanist artistic approach. Her photographs, witnesses to the Great Depression, immortalised the face of an America stricken by poverty and despair. Working with the Farm Security Administration (FSA) under the New Deal, she documented the rural exodus of migrants for the Rural Rehabilitation Division. Her work, famous for photos such as "Migrant Mother", has influenced generations of photographers and continues to fascinate.

Discover Dorothea Lange's photographs with "Migrant mother", her most famous print, a personification of the economic crisis that affected North America from 1929 onwards, "Farm in an arid desert in Texas", a shot showing the ravages of the drought in the south of the country at the same period, or "Daughters of displaced farmers", an image testifying to the photographer's particular empathy for the youngest children affected by poverty.

Grab yourself a reproduction of a Dorothea Lange photograph available in the catalogue, and discover the life of this exceptional artist, from her beginnings to international recognition, via her editions and her commitments to the most disadvantaged.

Biography of Dorothea Lange

Childhood and youth of Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange, born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn, was born on 26 May 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the United States. Born into a family of German immigrants, her childhood was marked by two events that had a profound influence on her work. At the age of seven, she contracted poliomyelitis, a disease that left her with a permanently disabled right leg and a heightened sensitivity to the suffering of others. A few years later, her father abandoned the family home, leaving her mother alone to bring up her two children.

It was during these difficult times that Dorothea Lange developed her interest in photography. After high school, she began studying photography at Columbia University in New York. There she studied under Clarence H. White, a renowned photographer who introduced her to pictorialism and an artistic approach to photography. Her time at the university was decisive for the rest of her career.

Dorothea Lange's beginnings and early success

After her studies, and her beginnings as a photographer in New York, Dorothea Lange moved to San Francisco in 1918. There she opened a portrait studio, marking the start of her professional career. This was a crucial period for Lange, who forged a reputation as a talented portraitist among the people of San Francisco. Her photographic style, characterised by an intimate approach and great sensitivity, quickly attracted a wealthy clientele. In 1920, she married the painter Maynard Dixon, with whom she would have two sons.

Parallel to her success as a portraitist, Lange felt a growing need to give social meaning to her photographs. The economic crisis that hit America at the end of the 1920s prompted her to take an interest in the most vulnerable populations. She began to document the social misery that surrounded her, an initial work that, in 1935, attracted the attention of the Resettlement Administration, a government body responsible for combating rural poverty, as well as Paul Schuster Taylor, an economist at Berkeley University who wanted to use Dorothea's photographs to document his own work. Taylor, sensitive to Dorothea's humanistic approach, encouraged her to continue in this direction and became her collaborator and second husband. This marked the beginning of a new phase in her career, which would lead her to produce some of the most emblematic photographs of the 20th century.

The Great Depression and social commitment as a backdrop for Dorothea Lange

The Great Depression that hit the United States from 1929 onwards marked a turning point in the career of the American photographer Dorothea Lange. Living in California, she witnessed the crisis that hit the most vulnerable populations hardest. Her images of the unemployed and homeless bear witness to the social misery rampant in the country.

In 1935, she officially joined the Rural Rehabilitation Division, which would become the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1937, a government agency created as part of President Roosevelt's New Deal to combat rural poverty. Lange travelled across America, immortalising the difficult living conditions of migrants fleeing the drought and misery of the Southern plains. She photographed families living in makeshift camps, starving children and exploited farm workers.

His work for the FSA gave rise to iconic images, including the famous "Migrant Mother", taken in 1936. This portrait of a mother, Florence Owens Thompson, with her children, became a symbol of suffering and resilience in the face of economic downturn. In addition to his work for the FSA, Lange also collaborated with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to document aid programmes for the most destitute. The persistent drought and economic hardship profoundly marked this period for the American people, and Lange's photographs became a poignant testament to it.

New horizons and commitments of Dorothea Lange

From 1942 onwards, the period was marked by the Second World War for the United States, and Dorothea Lange embarked on a new photographic project: documenting the internment of the Japanese population in the country. She was hired by the War Relocation Authority, a government agency that wanted to document the humane detention of prisoners. Dorothea Lange's photographs, however, show quite the opposite, with difficult conditions in each camp, and the anguish and uncertainty of the Japanese or Japanese-American families. These powerful images were consequently censored by the Roosevelt administration, which wanted to avoid any criticism of its internment policy. It was not until several decades later that these photos were authorised for publication and the public was able to discover this painful episode in American history.

After the war, Lange continued to photograph, collaborating with Life Magazine. She travelled to Asia and Ireland, reporting on a variety of subjects, always with a particular focus on children and marginalised populations. Her collaboration with the Magnum agency and Photo Researchers enabled her to distribute her photos around the world. Despite health problems, Dorothea Lange continued her commitment to photography until her death from oesophageal cancer in 1965, leaving behind an invaluable photographic legacy.

Dorothea Lange: Legacy and recognition

After her death in San Francisco on 11 October 1965, Dorothea Lange's work continued to grow in importance and recognition. Her story, intimately linked to that of twentieth-century America, has been celebrated through numerous exhibitions and retrospectives. The Museum of Modern Art in New York, for example, devoted a major exhibition to her in 1966, just a few months after her death.

The impact of his work on documentary and social photography is undeniable. Her images, particularly the iconic Migrant Mother, became symbols of the Great Depression and testify to the power of engaged art. Paul Schuster Taylor, her collaborator and second husband, played a crucial role in the dissemination of her work, from the use of editions of his wife's photographs to interviews and conferences.

Many institutions, such as the Oakland Museum in California, preserve and exhibit her photographs. In 2006, a special edition of her photographs, "Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the censored images of Japanese American internment", taken in Japanese internment camps during the Second World War was published, revealing a lesser-known facet of her work. More recently, in 2018, the Jeu de Paume art centre in Paris presented a major exhibition devoted to her work, confirming her place among the most important photographers of the 20th century.