Dorothea lange full biography videos

Dorothea Lange's photo humanised the Great Depression and greatly influenced documentary photography

It was during the depths of the Great Depression of the late 1920s and 30s, when around 15 million people were out of work in the US, that Dorothea Lange - born this day, May 26, in 1895 - took to the streets with her camera. Lange's photographs did much to humanise the awful consequences of the Great Depression and greatly influenced the development of documentary photography.

Born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn, Lange dropped her middle name in favour of her mother's maiden name when her father abandoned the family when she was 12-years-old.

At the age of seven she had contracted polio which had left her with a permanent limp. 

"It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me and humiliated me," Lange once said of her resulting altered gait.

"I've never gotten over it, and I am a