Main entry:

Gordon, Linda, author.

Title & Author:

Dorothea Lange : a life beyond limits / Linda Gordon.

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication:

London ; New York : W.W. Norton & Co., ©2009.

Description:

xxiii, 536 pages, 40 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"A camera is a tool for learning how to see -- " -- Hoboken and San Francisco, 1895-1931. Child of iron, wounded ; Apprentice to the city ; Becoming a photographer ; Maynard Dixon, Bohemian artist ; Working mother in Bohemia -- Depression and renewal, 1932-1935. Leaving the children, leaving the studio ; A New Deal for artists ; Paul Schuster Taylor, maverick economist ; The romance of love, the romance of the cause ; Blending a family -- Creating documentary photography, 1935-1939. Father Stryker and the beloved community ; On the road : California ; Migrant Mother ; On the road : the Dust Bowl ; On the road : the South ; An American Exodus ; Dorothea and Roy -- Wartime, 1939-1945. Family stress ; Defiant war photography : the Japanese internment ; Unruly war photography : the Office of War Information and Defense Workers -- Independent photographer, 1945-1965. Surviving in the cold ; Working for Life ; Diplomat's wife ; To a cabin ; Photographer of democracy -- Lange's photograph captions.
British Library not licensed to copy 0.
Bancroft Prize, 2010.
Willa Literary Award for scholarly nonfiction, 2010.
Long listed for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, 2010.
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, 2009

Summary:

Dorothea Lange's photographs define how the American Depression is remembered; this evocative biography defines her creative struggles and enduring legacy.
"Dorothea Lange was the greatest documentary photographer of her era. Her consummate images of the Great Depression have renewed meaning in our distressed times. While her photograph known as Migrant Mother is one of the world's most recognized images, few people know anything about the artist herself. In this 'deeply moving biography,' Linda Gordon depicts Lange's passions, conflicts, and achievements in a life that intersected with many of the major moments of twentieth-century American history, but Gordon also boldly reckons with her 'unwomanly' ambition and sometimes imperious personality as well as her generosity and uncanny sensitivity. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1895, Lange contracted polio at a young age. It left her with a permanent disability but endowed her, she believed, with an uncommonly heightened sympathy for the disadvantaged. Teaching herself photography through a series of apprenticeships, she moved to San Francisco in 1918 and opened what became the city's most prestigious portrait studio, immersing herself in its bohemian artistic world and marrying its most prominent artist, Maynard Dixon. By the Depression, Lange's sensibility had shifted, and moved by a growing social conscience, she went into the streets to become a documentary photographer, defying both her disability and the severe constraints on women. Soon her personal life mirrored her public persona, as she divorced the self-absorbed Dixon and married progressive economist Paul Schuster Taylor, forming a lifelong partnership that would have a profound effect on her career. Lange was soon employed by FDR's New Deal and produced thousands of images that shaped America's understanding of the Depression, but Gordon also examines her lesser-known later work, including her defiantly critical images of the Japanese American internment camps. Lange's haunting work from this period is recognized by millions of Americans, but at her death in 1965 at the age of seventy, her name remained known only among photographers. Today people are calling for a 'new Dorothea Lange' to document our current struggles. This 'riveting' biography illuminates a woman's life as well as her heroic contribution to American democracy."--Dust jacket.

Resources:
Additional Information at Google Books

ISBN:

9780393057300 (hardcover)
0393057305 (hardcover)

Subject:

Lange, Dorothea.
Photographers United States Biography.
Documentary photography United States History 20th century.
Photographes États-Unis Biographies.
Photographie documentaire États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle.
Documentary photography
Manners and customs
Photographers
United States Social life and customs 20th century Pictorial works.
États-Unis Mœurs et coutumes 20e siècle Ouvrages illustrés.
United States

Form/genre:

Biography.
illustrated books.
Illustrated works
Biographies
History
Ouvrages illustrés.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 265610
Call No.: BIB 197073
Status: Available