ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – The Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University is pleased to announce the opening of Dorothea Lange: Photographer of the Great Depression. Approximately twenty photographs will be on display from Lange’s time spent working for the Resettlement Administration (RA), later the Farm Security Administration (FSA), during the Depression.

Lange’s photos have come to be linked inextricably to that time period, and captured the desperate circumstances of her subjects in an immediate and sympathetic way. Her work almost single-handedly gave rise to social documentary in the field of photography.

From 1935 to 1940, Lange's work for FSA brought the plight of the poor and forgotten, particularly displaced farm families and migrant workers, to public attention. Distributed free of charge to newspapers across the country, her poignant images quickly became icons of the era.

No single photo from this period is more iconic than Migrant Mother (1936). This gripping portrait of a mother contemplating the uncertain future awaiting herself and her children focused attention on the plight of migrant workers. Ironically, the photo did little to alleviate the troubles of its subject. Additionally, the actual circumstances surrounding how, when, and why Lange took the photo have been cause for controversy. Nonetheless, the photo remains recognized as one of the most famous American images ever produced.

Dorothea Lange’s career began in New York, but she quickly relocated to San Francisco, opening a portrait studio there in 1918. After the Great Depression began, Lange focused her attentions away from studio portraiture towards street life and homelessness. This work won praise from her peers, and directly led to her employment by the Resettlement Administration, a government agency created to focus attention on the growing problem of poverty in the United States. Her images of displaced farmers and migrant workers were distributed to free of charge to newspapers across the country and quickly became icons of the era.