Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was educated as a psychologist and had a minor in photography. She had started her photographing career in San Francisco where she opened up a portrait studio. With the onset of the Great Depression, she focused on the people at that time. With unemployed and homeless people, she captured the attention of other photographers. She turned to the Federal Resettlement Administration, which was later called the Farm Security Administration. She documented the rural poverty and exploitation of the sharecroppers and migrate laborers, bringing them to public attention. Her images became iconic of the era with the distribution of a free newspaper. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, her focus went to the Japanese-Americans and the “relocation camps” in America. She covered the evacuation to temporary centers and then to Manzanar, the first internment camp. Her images were critical of the Army and the containment of people that where detained without charging them with any crime or any appeal.