{"data":{"id":"13365","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":13365,"topgoose_id":1576,"tms_id":13365,"display_name":"Dorothea Lange","sort_name":"Lange Dorothea","display_date":"1895–1965","begin_date":"1895","end_date":"1965","biography":"\u003cp\u003eDorothea Lange spent many years making\nphotographs for New Deal government\nagencies. Yet she arrived at this enterprise\nonly after a lucrative career as a high-\nsociety portrait photographer in San\nFrancisco, where she skillfully deployed the\nPictorialist training she had received from\nthe legendary photographer Clarence\nWhite. Even before the stock market crash\nin 1929, however, Lange had become\ndissatisfied with commercial portraiture,\nand in the ensuing years she turned\nher attention to documenting the effects\nof the Depression.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1935 Lange began working\nfor the California State Emergency Relief\nAdministration, where she met her\nhusband and future collaborator, economist\nPaul Schuster Taylor. Later that year she\ntransferred to the Resettlement\nAdministration, set up to assist migrating\nagricultural workers, and produced\nsome of her most famous images. This\npicture, taken on a highway in California,\ncaptures two girls who have been\ndisplaced with their family. One child stands\nwithout shoes and the other with the aid\nof crutches. The caption in the Farm\nSecurity Administration archives reads:\n“Children of Oklahoma drought refugees\non highway near Bakersfield, California.\nFamily of six; no shelter, no food, no\nmoney and almost no gasoline. The child\nhas bone tuberculosis.” Lange had a\nlimp from contracting polio as a young girl,\nwhich perhaps helped her capture\nsubjects with greater empathy. The\nphotograph does not reduce these children\nto mere facts or statistics. Rather, Lange\ndares viewers to look at the human\nconsequences of unregulated capitalism\nand environmental ruination.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500007674","wikidata_id":"Q230673","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:31:07.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-11T07:03:41.196-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/13365/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/13365/exhibitions"}}}}