U3 I Am An American Blast

Background

Nonviolent protests aren't the only way to stand up for your rights or the rights of others—another

way to draw awareness to a cause that you care about is through art or media. Photojournalism, or the
relating of news through photographs, can have a strong impact on the world. One photojournalist who
changed the way people thought was Dorothea Lange.

Dorothea Lange was born in 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey. When she was seven years old, she

suffered from polio, which left one of her legs withered and her foot painfully twisted. This made walking
difficult for Dorothea, but she didn’t let that stop her. She was interested in art and photography from a
young age, and after she graduated from high school she pursued a career in photography. Dorothea
was mostly interested in portraiture, and she set up a small portrait studio in San Francisco.

In the 1920s, Dorothea took a road trip around the American southwest, and it was there that she

first became interested in photographing people as they went about their everyday lives. She took
many photographs of Native Americans. When she started seeing the effects of the Great Depression in
her own San Francisco neighborhood in the early 1930s, Dorothea began photographing people in
bread lines and labor strikes. She wanted to capture the battles that these people were fighting just to
survive.

Background

Nonviolent protests aren't the only way to stand up for your rights or the rights of others—another

way to draw awareness to a cause that you care about is through art or media. Photojournalism, or the
relating of news through photographs, can have a strong impact on the world. One photojournalist who
changed the way people thought was Dorothea Lange.

Dorothea Lange was born in 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey. When she was seven years old, she

suffered from polio, which left one of her legs withered and her foot painfully twisted. This made walking
difficult for Dorothea, but she didn’t let that stop her. She was interested in art and photography from a
young age, and after she graduated from high school she pursued a career in photography. Dorothea
was mostly interested in portraiture, and she set up a small portrait studio in San Francisco.

In the 1920s, Dorothea took a road trip around the American southwest, and it was there that she

first became interested in photographing people as they went about their everyday lives. She took
many photographs of Native Americans. When she started seeing the effects of the Great Depression in
her own San Francisco neighborhood in the early 1930s, Dorothea began photographing people in
bread lines and labor strikes. She wanted to capture the battles that these people were fighting just to
survive.