Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Nude, 1925
Nude, 1927 Nude, 1936
Weston developed a similar interest in the organic
forms of fruits, vegetables, rocks, and seashells
An influential American
documentary photographer
and photojournalist
Best known for her
Depression-era work for the
US government
Lange's photographs
humanized the consequences
of the Great Depression
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey
Educated in photography at
Columbia University in New
York City
Moved to San Francisco in
1918 and opened a successful
portrait studio the following
year
When the Great Depression
began in 1929, Lange turned
her camera lens from the
studio to the street White Angel Bread Line, San
Francisco, 1933
Langes photos of
unemployed and
homeless people led
to her employment
with the federal Farm
Security
Administration
From 1935 to 1939,
Lange documented
sharecroppers,
displaced farm
families, and migrant
workers
Poor mother and children,
Oklahoma, 1936
Mississippi Delta Children, 1936 Mother & children, Tulelake,
California, 1939
Distributed free to
newspapers across the
country, Langes images
became icons of the era
Her best-known picture is
titled "Migrant Mother
I saw and approached the
hungry and desperate
mother, as if drawn by a
magnet. She had just sold
the tires from her car to buy
food.
Migrant Mother, 1936
In 1941, Lange was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship for
excellence in photography
Following the attack on Pearl
Harbor, she covered the
internment of Japanese
Americans
Her images were so obviously
critical that the Army
impounded most of them, and
they were not seen publicly for
more than 50 years
In 1945, Lange was invited to teach photography at
the California School of Fine Arts
In 1952, she co-founded the photographic magazine
Aperture
Lange died of esophageal cancer on October 11, 1965
in San Francisco, California at age 70
Gordon Parks
(1912 2006)
An American photographer,
musician, writer and film
director
Parks was the first African-
American staff photographer
for Life magazine and later
the first African-American to
direct a major motion picture
He is known for his striking
fashion photography
Parks was born in Fort Scott,
Kansas and attended a
segregated elementary school
At the age of 25, he was struck
by photographs of migrant
workers in a magazine and
bought his first camera
The photography clerks who
developed Parks' first roll of
film, applauded his work and
prompted him to seek work as
a fashion photographer
Parks moved to Chicago in
1940, where he began a
portrait business and
specialized in photographs
of society women
In 1944, he became a
freelance fashion
photographer for Vogue
He developed a distinctive
style, often photographing
his models in motion, or
casual poses
His photographs seemed like he caught his subjects off
guard and mid-action, as if they were waiting for a bus,
in the middle of shopping, or expecting a lunch date
Parks composed his images dramatically and made
them seem as if they were part of a narrative
In 1948, Parks began a staff
job as a photographer and
writer with Life magazine
For 20 years, he covered
subjects including fashion,
sports, Broadway, poverty,
racial segregation, and
portraits of famous
celebrities
In 1971, Parks directed the
major hit film Shaft
He died of cancer at the
age of 93 while living in
Manhattan Muhammad Ali, Miami, Florida,
1966