One of the many biographies of women artists that I listened to on my daily walks this year was Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon. Lange was a complicated, talented photographer committed to social justice. There were a couple of things about the book that annoyed me but mostly I loved it and was sad when it ended with her death from esophageal cancer at the age of 70. It seems like she wasn’t done contributing to the world.
I have always admired the work of the FSA photographers, Lange among them. Her photo, Migrant Mother (below), is one of the most iconic images of the 1930s Depression. I love the idea of the US government paying artists of various types to document life in the US, especially during a time like the Depression.