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Duringthe Great Depression, Dorothea Lange saw peoplehungry and in despair. She "told" their stories with her photos.

Prologue narratorDorothea LangeJoan Nutzhorn, Langes motherFlorence "Fronsie" Alstrom.Lange's hest friendMaynard Dixon,Lange's first husbandMartin Nutzhorn,Lange's younger brother*Thaddeus Kendall 1 men in•Maxie Trent j breadlinePaul Taylor,college professor ond activistRon Partridge,I/', Lange's assistant"^Debbie Nakamura,13, U.S.'born daughter ofimmigrants from JopanMajor Beasley, U.S. Armg officerNarrators A-EEpilogue narrator

*indicates aßctionol character.All others were real people.

PROLOGUEPrologue narrator: FewAmerican photographers are asfamous for their iconic images asDorothea Lange. She had a giftfor illuminating feelings as wellas faces in her work. During the

Great Depression, Lange turnedher camera on ordinary peoplecaught up in one of the grimmesteras in the nation's history.Through her photos, she toldstories—and revealed truths—/oAmericans about Americans.

SCEiSIIE INarrator A: Our story begins withthe birth of Dorothea MargarettaNutzhorn on May 26, 1895, inHoboken, New Jersey. At age 7,she gets polio, an infectious diseasethat attacks muscles, often causingphysical deformity. (For the restof her life, she walks with a limp.)When she is 10, her father aban-dons the family. Dorothea's motherworks hard to support her twochildren. She wants her daughter tobecome a teacher, but Dorothea hasother plans. In January 1918 . . .Dorothea: Well, Mother, 1 guessthis is goodbye.Joan Nutzhorn: Why give upon teaching? There aren't manycareers for a woman—especiallyone as fiercely independent as you.Dorothea: Teaching doesn't suitme. I'm going to be a photographer.Nutzhorn: What do you knowabout photography?

Dorothea: I've been workingafter school in Mr. Genthe'sstudio. I've learned a lot—and I'llkeep on learning.Narrator B: Lange and her bestfriend head out of town on a bus.Florence "Fronsie" Alstrom:Freedom!Dorothea: Yeah. Where we'regoing, nobody will know that ourclassmates called me Limpy.Alstrom: Or that your fatherabandoned you.Dorothea: That's why I'm usingmy mother's maiden name fromnow on. Goodbye, Hoboken.Goodbye, Dorothea Nutzhorn!Alstrom: Hello, San Francisco—and Dorothea Lange, photographer!

SCIENIi 2Narrator C: Lange feels at homein California. She opens a studioand becomes a successful portraitphotographer. She meets andmarries Maynard Dixon, a painter,and starts a family. But . . .Maynard Dixon: I'm off toArizona. Be back in a few weeks.Dorothea Lange: You always saythat. But often it turns into months!How am 1 supposed to take care ofthe kids and my studio business?

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I WHITE ANGEL BREADUNESan Francisco, Callfbmia, 1B3Z.

Dixon: I make good moneyselling my paintings of theSouthwest. It's my job—andmy life.Lange: Well, photography is myjob and my life.Dixpn: Men work. Women stayhome. That's how it's alwaysbeen. 1 didn't make the rules.Lange: You don't have to be aslave to them, either. Nor do i!Narrator D: With help fromfriends, and sometimes a boardingschool for the children, Langekeeps her portrait business going.

SCIENE 3Narrator E: Then comes the stockmarket crash of October 1929. Thenation is plunged into the GreatDepression. By 1932, nearly 25percent of Americans are out ofwork. One day that year, Lange'sbrother drops by her studio.Martin Nutzhorn: How's business?Lange: Awful. Portraits are aluxury that few people can afford.Martin Nutzhorn: it s badeverywhere. I had to walk by along breadline to get here.^ ' i ' g Yes, I see it from mywindow. A woman known asthe White Angel runs it. It's sadseeing so many people jobless

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Words to Know.'JÜILT-ÍSI ínJ" Great Plains areasdevastated by severe drought fromlga i to the early 1940s.

[n]: a period ofsevere economic decline that affectedmuch of the world in the decade afterthe stock market crash of 1929.

¡•i-liif-j (adj): powerfuliy symbolic;representative of a broader or largeridea.

^"VifyW fsah-buh-TUR) (n): an enemyagent who participates in secret actsof destruction.

Dorothea Langeat work in 1936.

American History Pk

Lange at WorkWeb Watwww.loc.gov/e

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and hungry. 1 wish I could dosomething.Narrator A: Suddenly, Lange grabsher camera.Lange: People need to knowwhat's going on here!Narrator B: The two go down tothe breadline. Lange doesn't want tointrude, but the men don't mind thesympathetic woman with a camera.Lange (to a man in thebreadline): What did you dobefore the Depression?Thaddeus Kendall: l owneda department store. We hada beautiful home, two cars, achauffeur. We even had—Maxie Trent: Yeah, well, that's allgone now, pal. Here we are, youand me, on the same ground.Lange: What did you do?Trent: I was a plumber. Sinks stillget clogged, but nobody can affordto hire me. My kids are hungry.Kendall: Mine too.Narrator C: One of the photosLange takes that day—WhiteAngel Breadline—becomes her firstfamous shot. Her photos of the

Left: Evacuees of Japanese ancestry enter acamp in California. iU»ve: A Japanese internment camp, also in California.

jobless and homeless catch the eyeof an economics professor, whoapproaches Lange.Paul Taylor: I'm studying howpeople cope in tough times. Yousay more in one photo than I can inpages of analysis. Will you help me?Lange: How?Taylor; Come on my field trips.Shoot whatever catches your eye.With your photos illustrating myreports, we can get the attentionof people who have the power tohelp those in need.Narrator D: Lange takes the job—and discovers her true calling. Herlife is changed in the process.

SCIENE 4Narrator E: By 1935, Langehas divorced Dixon and marriedTaylor. The President, Franklin D.Roosevelt, has been establishinga series of programs, known asthe New Deal, to help Americanssuffering during the Depressionand the Dust Bowl. Lange andTaylor work for the ResettlementAdministration (later the Farm

Security Administration). Theydocument the harsh lives of farmersand other people in hard*hit ruralareas. A young assistant helps withLange's bulky camera and gear.Ron Partridge: Your photos amazeme. The way people gaze at thecamera seems painfully intimate.Why do they let you get so close?Lange: I don't barge in, tellingthem what to do. I take my time. Italk with them, learn a little abouttheir lives. I let the kids play withmy camera. Then I step back. Theysoon forget about me and go backabout their daily lives. Then I shoot.Narrator A: Between 1935 and1939, Lange takes some of hermost famous photos, including theone known as Migrant Mother.

sciimi 5Narrator B: On December 7, 1941,the Japanese bomb a U.S. navalbase at Pear! Harbor, Hawaii. Thenext day, the U.S. enters WorldWar 11. Some Americans, especiallyon the West Coast, panic, fearingfurther attacks. On February 19,

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A migrant Mexican field worker and child in front of theirhome on the edge of a frozen pea field in California's Imperial Valley, 1937.

1942, President Roosevelt signsExecutive Order 9066. It authorizesthe U.S. military to round upJapanese-Americans and put themin internment [confinement] camps.Taylor: Two thirds of the peoplebeing rounded up are U.S. citizens!Does anyone really think they arespies and saboteurs?I ;:•;•>- I've been photographingfamilies being evacuated. They haveto leave behind everything exceptwhat they can fit in a suitcase.Narrator C: Lange is hired byanother federal agency, the WarRelocation Authority, and sent to thecamps. At one, called Manzanar . . .Lange: What is life like here?Debbie Nakamura: It's horrible!I miss my school and my friends.One day, life was normal. Thenext, they rounded us up, putus on buses, and sent us here.Thousands of people are crammedinto cabins in the middle of adesert, surrounded by barbed-wire fences and armed guards. Mybrother is in the U.S. Army, yet weare treated like criminals.

Lange; My job is to documentlife in the internment camps.Debbie: Good! If people see whatit's really like, maybe they'll helpget us out of here.Narratot C: The military objectsto Lange's picture-taking. Someofficials try to stop her.Major Beasley: There's a wargoing on, lady. Photos like yourscould undermine the war effort.Lange: The people in these campswant their stories told, and I intendto tell them. The Constitution frownson locking up citizens who haven'tbeen found guilty of a crime.Narrator E: Lange's photos exposethe injustice of the camps. ButLange doesn't own the photos—the government does. It impounds[seizes and withholds] them. Theimages aren't exhibited until 1972.

Epilogue narrator: For as longas her health permitted. Langekept taking pictures. For a while,she lived abroad, photographingpeople in South America, Asia,

and the Middle East. She died inSan Francisco on October 11, 1965.

A year earlier. Lange told aninterviewer about the day that hadchanged her life—photographingthe San Francisco breadline. "I wasstill sort of aware that there wasa very large world out there thatI had not entered too well, and Idecided I'd better," she said. "Inever had any sense [of] making acareer out of it. It was more a senseof personal commitment."

Thanks to that commitment,we now have a collection ofphotographs that shows how welived and survived as a nation at acrucial time in American history.

—Kathy Wilmore

Think About It

1. What events in Lange's child-hood helped shape her career?

2. If you wanted to comment onan injustice, how would you doso—through words, photos, orsome other medium? Explain.

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