The Depression Era Photography of Dorothea Lange

A look at the work of Dorothea Lange who captured the Great Depression through her lens and created some of the iconographic images of that era.

At a time when women had had the vote for less than twenty years, Dorothea Lange was a pioneer. A professional woman who took photographs for a living. The Great Depression of the 1930s is best remembered, photographically, by the work of the FSA, for which she worked. She travelled the USA recording the deprivations caused by the failure of the economy as well as taking many uplifting images that showed that, despite the hard times, life and love went on.

It is probably best to start with an image of the photographer herself. Unlike some, Lange did not interpolate herself actively in her photographs – those that we have of her show her usually on her own in very much a framed composition. This shot from 1937 shows her in the field with one of her cameras, rather coquettishly positioned atop of her car. Short dark hair and a feminine yet somehow boyish dress sense, the beauty of this shot lies in the baseball boots she is wearing. Her job was not, after all, one that required heels on any sort so why bow to the fashion dictates of the time?

The Photography of Jack Délano - the Man who Colored the Forties

Above: A young worker at the C & NW RR 40th Street shops, Chicago, Illinois, 1942.

"I was interested in people not only as images, but also as human beings. In stories that they would tell me or interviews I had with them. It seemed to be it was an important part of what I was trying to communicate." 

    - Jack Délano, Far From Main Street

Image Credit Flickr Library of Congress

Above: Taken in September 1941, this is the backstage area of the girlie show at the Vermont State Fair.

Many people will admit to having eclectic tastes but a significantly smaller number would be able to raise their hands and profess to having eclectic talents too.  Not so Jack Délano whose pictures of ordinary American life in the 1940s made him world famous as a photographer.  He was, however, also a trained musician, a composer, an illustrator and latterly a film and documentary maker. Here, we shall focus on his photography but as we examine his work in this field we hope to also include detail of his other areas of artistic interests.