Dorothea Lange

American (1895–1965)
White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1932
Gelatin-silver print, printed 1950s
Gift of Edwynn Houk     2001.5

After nearly ten years of working as a portrait photographer in San Francisco, in the 1930s Dorothea Lange broke with her commercial work and turned to the streets for subject matter.  She had experienced mounting anger over the economic tragedy of the Great Depression and at last felt compelled to capture its grim effects first-hand.  The “White Angel Breadline” was a San Francisco soup kitchen located close to Lange’s studio.  She shot the site on her first day as a street photographer, and, as she later said, that momentous day’s shoot finally focused her powers of perception and the revealed the clarity needed to “capture it.” The “it” Lange sought was the effect of economic strain on the human soul and the slow crumbling of the spirit as it desperately clung to hope.