STP Study Center

Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures

With River Bullock, Tasha Lutek,

Sarah Meister and poet Tess Taylor

Erna and Victor Hasselblad Photography Study Center

Photo: Jane Pierce, Research Assistant
Land of the Free, by
Archibald MacLeish
(Harcourt, Brace, 1938)
Land of the Free, by Archibald MacLeish (Harcourt, Brace, 1938) An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion, by Dorothea Lange
and Paul Schuster Taylor (New York: Reynal & HItchcock, 1939)
Land of the Free, by Archibald MacLeish (Harcourt, Brace, 1938) 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the
United States, by Richard Wright (Viking, 1941)
Dorothea Lange. California migratory
farm laborers, drought refugees from
Oklahoma, camped in the brush on the
river bottom with no water or sanitation.
On the outskirts of Brawley. Imperial
Valley, California. February 1937. Farm
Security Administration—Office of War
Information Photograph Collection,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Dorothea Lange. Bindles on shady side of
Pastime Cafe. Siskiyou County, Tulelake,
California. August 1939. Farm Security
Administration—Office of War Information
Photograph Collection, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.
Dorothea Lange. Bulletin board in
Shafter migrant camp, California. Many
become discouraged, see no hope or
future in California and return to their
home states. November 1938. Farm
Security Administration—Office of War
Information Photograph Collection,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Dorothea Lange’s handwritten captions for lots
344–45, 1936. Farm Security
Administration—Office of War Information
Photograph Collection, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.
Dorothea Lange. Mexican bathing facilities at
Japanese ranch camp near Indio, March 3,
1935, in Paul S. Taylor, Establishment of Rural
Rehabilitation Camps for Migrants in California,
report of March 15, 1935. Farm Security
Administration—Office of War Information
Photograph Collection, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.
Dorothea Lange. Near Half Moon Bay,
California coast. Artichoke farms reach to
the water’s edge. November 1938. Farm
Security Administration—Office of War
Information Photograph Collection, Library
of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Installation view, Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures, MoMA, opened February 9, 2020
An American Exodus: A Record
of Human Erosion, by Dorothea
Lange and Paul Schuster Taylor
(New York: Reynal & HItchcock,
1939), endpapers
Dorothea Lange. Richmond, California.
1942
Dorothea Lange. On the Road to Los
Angeles, California. March 1937
Links and resources:

Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures audio guide

Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures introduction video on MoMA’s YouTube channel

Tess Taylor on the Dorothea Lange audio guide:

Dorothea Lange. Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona November 1940. 1940
Dorothea Lange. On the Road to Los Angeles, California. 1937
Dorothea Lange. Richmond, California. 1942

Tess Taylor on Finding Poetry in Dorothea Lange podcast: “The Mind’s Other Voice”: Tess Taylor on Finding Poetry in Dorothea
Lange | Magazine

Tess Taylor’s website: Tess Taylor

Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange - Paperback from the MoMA Store

New York Times: Following Dorothea Lange's Notebooks

New York Times article about Lange’s 1942 photographs: Rarely Seen Photos of Japanese Internment