Happy birthday to American photographer, Dorothea Lange (05/26/1895-10/11/1965)! Lange traveled the country documenting rural America after the Great Depression as part of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) project. Her most famous photograph from this time is sometimes referred to as "Migrant Mother". I am sure you have all seen this haunting image of a woman, with three of her children "framing" her. Personally, I find this image both beautiful and heart-wrenching at the same time. That image is what I consider “catching lightning in a bottle”. 

What you may not know about Lange is that she also used her camera to document the Japanese-American internment camps with the same compassion and humanity. Last year, I wrote a series of blog posts celebrating Dorothea Lange and her contribution to photography. I have set the related Dorothea Lange blog posts to be “Featured” at the bottom of this post. 

As I mentioned and referenced in all of these posts, if you are a reader, I recommend the biography by Linda Gordon. I always approach biographies with some trepidation because I am afraid I will read the last page and not feel the same fondness toward the person that I felt on the first page. This was not the case with Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon. The book gave me a deeper appreciation of the photographer; flaws and all. I think I also shared this NPR Morning Edition interview with Linda Gordon, but here it is again. In this interview, Gordon discusses the book and does a good job of setting up the ride you are about to take in reading the book. Click HERE to listen to the interview and/or read the transcript. I found it completely worthy of the 7 minute listen. So, give Dorothea Lange a little listen for her birthday, appreciate one or two of her images, maybe spring for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentaries that feature Lange…