Dorothea Lange

Overview

Dorothea Lange was a photographer whose work documented life in 20th-century America. Lange contracted polio when she was seven and lived in poverty for a time as a child, experiences that she said influenced her to focus on the less fortunate.

Lange's best-known work is from her time working for a New Deal initiative aimed at combating poverty. "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California," her most famous photo of that era, is one of the enduring images of the Great Depression and is believed by some to be among the most reproduced photographs in the world.

Lange also documented the relocation of Japanese Americans to concentration camps during World War II, as well as several Mormon communities in Utah. She remains one of America's most recognizable photographers, and her work continues to define the country's vision of itself and its history.

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