LANGE, DOROTHEA (1895-1965) "San Francisco, Alley, North Beach District." Silver print, 9 1/2x7 1/4 inches (24.1x18.4 cm.), with Lange's title, date and notations, in pencil, on verso. 1935
Dorothea Lange's work is synonymous with migrant farm workers and their families, whose livelihoods were negatively impacted during the Great Depression. After a successful career as a portrait photographer, Lange turned to documentary work and was hired by Roy Stryker, who directed the Farm Security Administration's photography program, which began in 1935 as part of the New Deal.
One of her earliest photographs from this period is a barren alley in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood which was the heart of San Francisco's working class immigrant culture, a west coast "Little Italy," bordered by the city's legendary Chinatown. Years later, this same community would be the epicenter of the beatniks, poets and artists associated with North Beach. While most of the FSA-era photographs highlight the plight of itinerant farm workers and the rural population, Lange found resonant symbolism in urban San Francisco. As everyone during this period knew, the Depression left no neighborhood untouched.
