Dorothea Lange (1895-1965),
Jake Jones’ Hands, Gunlock, Utah, 1953, gelatin silver print, 13 x 10 3/8 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Jack and Mary Lois Wheatley, 2007. ©Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California, City of Oakland. Gift of Paul S. Taylor.
American photographer Dorothea Lange was born on this day in 1895. Lange is famed for her Depression-era photojournalism work for the Farm Security Administration, in which she documented the plight of those affected by the financial and agricultural crises of that time. Lange was born in New Jersey and studied photography at Columbia University in New York City. Following her graduation, she traveled across the country, but, due to a robbery, was forced to remain in San Francisco instead of returning home. For the rest of her life, Lange lived in the San Francisco area. Lange was a faculty member at the California School of Fine Arts, having been invited to the position by Ansel Adams. She also co-founded photography magazine
Aperture, which is still in print today.