Dorothea Lange, born in 1895, was an American photographer praised for her work during the Depression era in the United States. Lange’s work, as a widely acclaimed documentary photographer, later led her to work in photo-journalism as she desired to inform the world of people’s sufferings and encourage change through doing so. 

As a child Dorothea Lange suffered greatly from polio but survived with a permanent limp in her leg, which she states to have shaped her as a person and her career path. Despite this limp, Dorothea was committed to traveling the country to capture what was necessary. Dorothea was hired by the government on multiple occasions to reveal the impacts of certain cultural and political events in the country. She was so committed to her work on social issues, she forfeited her grant midway at the Guggenheim. Lange’s photograph Migrant Mother was and still is known as the most iconic image representing the displacement of sharecroppers and farmers after the Dust Bowl. The portrait, like many of her other works, revealed the plight of the subjects in a dramatic, yet subtle way which made viewers appreciate the work and sympathize with the subjects and their struggles. She was able to subtly capture the severity of issues through the emotions during times of grief and despair.  Dorothea’s work was not limited to the Depression, but rather all social issues she felt needed to be addressed. Her main goal was to bring social change through her works by informing the viewers what was going on beyond them.

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