Dorothea Lange

1895 – 1965 · United States · 395 photographs

American documentary photographer whose work for the Farm Security Administration defined the visual record of the Depression: migrant families, dust-bowl roads, field labor and the faces of displacement, photographed with a portraitist's patience and a reformer's intent.

Walk this collection

Years

1930s

Where

California · Utah · New Jersey

Tone

Black and white

Often

Vehicles · Trucks · Pails · Sheds

Japanese relocation, California. Members of the Shibuya family are pictured at home before evacuation. The father and the mother were born in Japan and came to this country in 1904. At that time the father had sixty dollars cash and a basket of clothes. He later built a prosperous business of raising select varieties of chrysanthemums, which he shipped to Eastern markets under his own name. Six children in the family were born in the United States. The four older children attended leading California universities. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in the War Relocation Authority centers for the duration

Ideal grazing conditions are afforded by this area if it is properly utilized. Overgrazing has depleted natural forage until feeding scenes like this are common. Mew Mexico

Mexican quarter of Los Angeles. One quarter mile from City Hall. Area has been condemned and will be torn down shortly to make space for the new Union Railroad station. Average rent is eight dollars

Mission District. San Francisco, California

Consumers, near Price, Utah. Company housing. Rent approximately eight dollars monthly in Utah coal town

Housing of migrant berry pickers in southern New Jersey

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection