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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2023>Dorothea Lange: Seeing People

# Dorothea Lange: Seeing People

Past Exhibition

## November 5, 2023 – March 31, 2024West Building, Ground Floor

During her long, prolific, and groundbreaking career, the American photographer Dorothea Lange made some of the most iconic portraits of the 20th century. *Dorothea Lange: Seeing People *reframes Lange’s work through the lens of portraiture, highlighting her unique ability to discover and reveal the character and resilience of those she photographed.

Featuring some 100 photographs, the exhibition addresses her innovative approaches to picturing people, emphasizing her work on social issues including economic disparity, migration, poverty, and racism.

## Explore Selected Works

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Human Erosion in California (Migrant Mother)*, March 1936, gelatin silver print, image: 34.1 x 26.8 cm (13 7/16 x 10 9/16 in.), The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 98.XM.162

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Grandfather and grandson of Japanese ancestry at a War Relocation Authority center, Manzanar, California*, July 1942, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.126

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Negro sharecropper with twenty acres. He receives eight cents a day for hoeing cotton. Brazos riverbottoms, near Bryan, Texas*, June 1938, printed c. 1950, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.119

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Children of the Weill public school shown in a flag pledge ceremony, San Francisco, California*, April 1942, printed c. 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.17

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *White Angel breadline, San Francisco, California*, 1933, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.4

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Displaced tenant farmers, Goodlett, Hardeman County, Texas*, 1937, printed 1950s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.20

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Nettie Featherston, wife of a migratory laborer with three children, near Childress, Texas*, June 1938, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.5

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Migratory field worker picking cotton in San Joaquin Valley, California*, November 1938, printed later, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.28

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *On the Plains a Hat Is More Than a Covering*, 1938, printed c. 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.24

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Eighteen-year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California migrant*, March 1937, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.32

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Young migratory cotton picker, Arizona*, 1941, printed 1950s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.36

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Migrant agricultural worker's family, Nipomo, California*, February 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.33

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Once a Missouri farmer, now a migratory farm laborer. San Joaquin Valley, California*, February 1936, printed c. 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.38

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Child of impoverished Negro tenant family working on farm, Alabama*, July 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.39

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Mexican workers leaving for melon fields, Imperial Valley, California*, June 1935, printed 1940s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.42

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Arkansas mother come to California for a new start, with husband and eleven children. Now a rural rehabilitation client. Tulare County, California*, November 1938, printed 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.43

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Yazoo Delta, Mississippi*, 1938, printed 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.45

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Former tenant farmer on relief grant in the Imperial Valley, California*, March 1937, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.49

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Formerly enslaved woman, Alabama*, 1938, printed 1950s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.58

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Black Woman Working in Field near Eutaw, Alabama*, 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.67

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Funeral cortege, San Joaquin Valley, California*, 1938, printed early 1950s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.68

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Hitch-hiking from Joplin, Missouri, to a sawmill job in Arizona. On U.S. 66 near Weatherford, western Oklahoma*, August 12, 1938, printed c. 1960s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.75

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Line of men inside a division office of the State Employment Service office at San Francisco, California, waiting to register for unemployment benefits*, January 1938, printed c. 1960s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.61

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Calipatra (vicinity), California. Native of Indiana in a migratory labor contractor's camp. "It's root hog or die for us folks."*, February 1937, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.79

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Migratory cotton picker, Eloy, Arizona*, 1940, printed c. 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.89

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Dispossessed Arkansas farmers. These people are resettling themselves on the dump outside of Bakersfield, California*, 1935, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.94

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Member of the congregation of Wheeley's church who is called "Queen." She is wearing the old fashioned type of sunbonnet. Her dress and apron were made at home. Near Gordonton, North Carolina*, July 1939, printed no later than 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.103

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Young girl looks up from her work. She picks and sacks potatoes on large-scale ranch, Edison, Kern County, California*, April 11, 1940, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.114

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Scandinavian Homesteader, Great Plains, South Dakota*, 1939, printed 1950s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.115

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Formerly enslaved woman, Alabama*, 1938, printed c. 1955, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.84

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Migratory pea pickers, Nipomo, California*, March 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.142

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Wandering boy, Camp Carlton, California*, 1935, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.137

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Migratory workers harvesting peas near Nipomo, California*, spring 1937, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2017.162.1

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Post office and postmistress, Widtsoe, Utah*, April 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2017.162.2

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Eighty-year-old woman living in squatters' camp on the outskirts of Bakersfield, California. "If you lose your pluck you lose the most there is in you—all you've got to live with"*, November 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2018.189.5

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Drought refugees from Oklahoma camping by the roadside, Blythe, California*, August 17, 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2017.162.4

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note the kerosene pump on the right and the gasoline pump on the left. Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. Negro men are sitting on the porch. Brother of store owner stands in doorway, Gordonton, North Carolina*, July 1939, printed later, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2018.189.14

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *This man is a labor contractor in the pea fields of California. "One-Eye" Charlie gives his views. "I'm making my living off of these people (migrant laborers) so I know the conditions," San Luis Obispo County, California*, February 1936, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2018.189.16

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Japanese American-owned grocery store, Oakland, California*, March 1942, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.134

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Untitled (La Estrellita, "Spanish" Dancer), San Francisco, California*, 1919, gelatin silver print, Collection of the Oakland Museum of California, Gift of Estrellita Jones.

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Hopi Man, Arizona*, 1923, printed 1926, gelatin silver print, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XP.912.4.

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Portrait of Adele Raas, San Francisco*, 1927, gelatin silver print, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gift of the Raas Family.

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Alabama Plow Girl, near Eutaw, Alabama*, 1936, gelatin silver print, Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2001 (2001.390).

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Child Living in Oklahoma City Shacktown*, August 1936, gelatin silver print, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Native American Girl, Taos, New Mexico*, 1931, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2022.114.4

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Grandfather and Grandchildren Awaiting Evacuation Bus, Hayward, California*, 1942, gelatin silver print, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.) 2005.27.4215.

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Street Encounter, Richmond, California*, c. 1943, gelatin silver print, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.) 2005.27.4297.

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Family Portrait, from Death of a Valley*, 1956, gelatin silver print, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, \nGift of an anonymous donor in memory of Merrily Page.

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Street Demonstration, San Francisco*, 1934, gelatin silver print, Diana and Mallory Walker Fund and Robert Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art, 2015.183.1

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Maynard and Dan Dixon*, 1930, printed c. 1960s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.60

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *San Francisco Waterfront*, 1934, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.69

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Korean Child*, 1958, gelatin silver print, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, 2022.114.1

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Anne Carter Johnson, St. George, Utah*, 1953, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.140

Dorothea Lange: Seeing People
Dorothea Lange, *Patrick Flanagan on Tubber Green, County Galway, Ireland*, 1954, printed no later than 1965, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.105

## Events

Through March 31
Exhibition Tour
Join us for a tour of *Dorothea Lange: Seeing People*. This exhibition explores Lange’s prolific and groundbreaking career through the lens of her iconic portraits.

March 16
Experimental Documentary Now
**Wendy Ewald and RaMell Ross**

Join us for a conversation moderated by National Gallery curator Philip Brookman with artist educators Wendy Ewald and RaMell Ross about the work of American photographer Dorothea Lange.

## Explore & Share

Story
Who Is Dorothea Lange? Six Things to Know
Learn how the documentary photographer got her start and why she dedicated her life to the medium.

Story
The Real Lives of People in Dorothea Lange's Portraits
Four everyday Americans were the subject of her famous photographs. Discover the heartbreak and suffering they experienced at crucial points in American history.

Story
Outside the Frame: How Dorothea Lange Created Her Iconic Photographs
Lange did more than just take snapshots of her subjects. Trace the artistic and technical choices she made throughout the creation of some of her most compelling images.

video
Understanding Dorothea Lange's Impact on Documentary Photography
Award-winning artists Carolyn Drake and Susan Meiselas discussed Dorothea Lange’s work and connections with their own social documentary and portrait photography practice with Philip Brookman, the National Gallery's consulting curator in the department of photographs.

Get the book
An expansive look at portraiture, identity, and inequality as seen in Lange’s iconic photographs. 
Now available

**Organization**                        Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington                    

This exhibition is curated by Philip Brookman, consulting curator in the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art.

**Sponsors** The exhibition is made possible through the leadership support of the Trellis Fund.

Exhibition support is also provided by The Shared Earth Foundation.

Additional funding is provided by Nion McEvoy, Wes and Kate Mitchell, and the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.

**Passes** Admission is always free and passes are not required

**Banner detail**: Dorothea Lange, *White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, California*, 1933, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, © The Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California, City of Oakland. Gift of Paul S. Taylor.

 

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