DOROTHEA LANGE
Like Esther Bubley, Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) documented the change
on the homefront, especially among ethnic groups and workers uprooted
by the war. Three months after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt
ordered the relocation of Japanese-Americans into armed camps in the West.
Soon after, the War Relocation Authority hired Lange to photograph Japanese
neighborhoods, processing centers, and camp facilities.
Lange's earlier work documenting displaced farm families and migrant
workers during the Great Depression did not prepare her for the disturbing
racial and civil rights issues raised by the Japanese internment. Lange
quickly found herself at odds with her employer and her subjects' persecutors,
the United States government.
To capture the spirit of the camps, Lange created images that frequently
juxtapose signs of human courage and dignity with physical evidence of
the indignities of incarceration. Not surprisingly, many of Lange's photographs
were censored by the federal government, itself conflicted by the existence
of the camps.
The true impact of Lange's work was not felt until 1972, when the Whitney
Museum incorporated twenty-seven of her photographs into Executive
Order 9066, an exhibit about the Japanese internment. New
York Times critic A.D. Coleman called Lange's photographs "documents
of such a high order that they convey the feelings of the victims as well
as the facts of the crime."
The Roots of a Career
[image not available online]
[Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor on field trip], 1935
Copyright the Dorothea Lange Collection,
The Oakland Museum of California,
The City of Oakland. Gift of Paul S. Taylor (85)
Study of Migrant Workers
[image not available online]
Paul Taylor and Dorothea Lange, " Again the Covered Wagon,"
Survey Graphic, July 1935, pp. 348-349
General Collections
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Prototype for Field
Reports on
Great Depression
Paul Taylor and Dorothea Lange,
Migration of Draught Refugees to California,
California State Emergency
Relief Administration,
April 1935, p. 12
Prints and Photographs Division (89)
LOT 897 |
Lange at Work
[Lange photographing
Japanese-American evacuees],
April 6, 1942
Prints and Photographs Division (89.1)
LC-USZ62-56704 |
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Interrupted Lives
Dorothea Lange,
[Residents of Japanese ancestry
awaiting the bus. . . . ],
April 1942
Prints and Photographs Division (90.1)
LC-USZ62-24654 |
A Compassionate Eye
Dorothea Lange,
[An early comer. . . .],
June 1942
Prints and Photographs Division (91.1)
LC-USZ62-126937 |
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Salute of Innocence
Dorothea Lange,
[Children of the Weill public school.
. . .],
April 1942
Prints and Photographs Division (92)
LC-USZ62-17124 |
Prelude to the Japanese
Exodus
Dorothea Lange,
[Civilian Executive Order No. 5. .
. .],
April 1942
Prints and Photographs Division (93)
LC-USZ62-34565 |
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Documenting the Good Life
[image not available online]
"Italians in American Support Allied Cause,"
Victory, Vol.1, No. 4, 1943, pp. 34-35
General Collections (94)
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Propaganda Poster
Based
on Lange Photograph
Dorothea Lange,
"This is America: Keep It Free."
Chicago: Sheldon-Claire, 1942
Prints and Photographs Division (95)
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Images Taken Out of Context
Dorothea Lange,
"Close-up: Photographs by Dorothea Lange," Survey Graphic,
October 1943,
pp. 392-393
General Collections (96) |
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Condition of War Workers Profiled
Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams,
"Richmond Took a Beating,"
Fortune, February 1945, p. 262 ff
(page one) (page
two) (page three)
General Collections (97) |
Impact of Internment Camps Examined
Paul Taylor and Dorothea Lange,
"Our Stakes in the Japanese Exodus,"
Survey Graphic, September 1942,
pp. 373, 374,
and 375
General Collections (140) |
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