Dorothea Lange was born on May 26^th, 1895. She was born of second generation German immigrants in New Jersey. Her name at birth was Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn. When she was twelve years old, her father abandoned the family. At age seven, she contracted polio which weakened her right leg and left her with a permanent limp. She said that, “It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me and humiliated me”.

Lange wasn’t very interested in academics. After high school she decided to pursue photography. She apprenticed for Arnold Genthe, one of the most successful portrait photographers. In New York, she apprenticed in several photography studios. In 1918, she moved to San Francisco, and by the following year she opened a successful portrait studio. She lived in Berkeley for the rest of her life, and in 1920 she married the noted western painter Maynard Dixon.

During the Great Depression, Lange used her camera on the streets. She studied unemployment and the homeless. Her work captured the attention of local photographers and she became employed with the Farm Security Administration. 

In 1935, she divorced Dixon and married Paul Schuster Taylor, who taught at UC Berkeley.  He taught her about social and political matters. From then until 1939, she showed the poor and forgotten. Although she began making most of her money by taking portraits of wealthy people, she liked the challenge of photographing the real human condition. 

In 1941, Lange was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for excellence in photography. After Pearl Harbor, she covered the rounding up of Japanese Americans. She was disgusted that the government would  lock people up just because they were Japanese. She was able to record the San Francisco shipyard workers, and took advantage of the need for ship builders to make their first real wages since the depression. Her insightful and compassionate photos have made an influence on the development of modern documentary photography.

For a short period of time Lange withdrew from photography. Her health was poor, and she had lingering effects from her polio. However, she briefly taught her methods at the California School of Fine Arts, By 1950, 

The Art Department of the Oakland Museum of California holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of the work of Dorothea Lange. Many of her photographs borrow techniques from the lexicon of modernism, which is dramatic angles and dynamic compositions. She wanted to produce startling images of her subjects. This never overpowered the subjects, but directed the viewer to see the photos in a distinct way. Her works proved that art is not exclusive, and her techniques also proved that modernist art didn’t only convey the artist’s feelings, but could also be used as popular journalism. Lange saw herself as a journalist, and then an artist. She wanted to effect social change by notifying the public of suffering.