Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange, born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn in 1895, became one of America's most influential documentary photographers. Early life events profoundly shaped her perspective: contracting polio at age seven left her with a permanent limp, which she later said "formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me, and humiliated me." Five years later, her father abandoned the family, prompting a move to a poorer neighborhood in New York City, where she learned to observe withou…