MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History May 26, 1895: American photojournalist Dorothea Lange was born. She is best-known for her empathetic photographs of people during the Great Depression. However, she is also one of the first to document the suffering of Japanese Americans who were imprisoned during World War II.</p><p>Lange grew up poor, in New York’s Lower East Side. She was one of the only gentiles in her school, which was predominantly Jewish. As a young adult, she moved to San Francisco, where she began her career doing portraits for the wealthy. But as the depression began, she turned her camera to the streets, on hobo camps, refugees from Oklahoma, farmers, breadlines, the homeless, portraying the misery and desperation of the period, becoming one of the first photodocumentarians. 22 of her photographs were used in John Steinbeck’s 1936 journalistic series for the San Francisco news, The Harvest of Gypsies, and they served as an inspiration for the film version of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GreatDepression" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GreatDepression</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/poverty" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>poverty</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ww2" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ww2</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/japanese" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>japanese</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/prison" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>prison</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ConcentrationCamp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ConcentrationCamp</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/journalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>journalism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/photography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>photography</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DorotheaLange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DorotheaLange</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/steinbeck" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>steinbeck</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/journalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>journalism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a></p>