Crecia C. Swaim
After World War II, Dorothea Lange developed an ulcer; her health problems kept her largely inactive from 1945-1951.
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When she began photographing again, her focus shifted from whole to parts, from the way social ills affect society as a whole, to making little windows into individual lives. She especially enjoyed photographing growing families. The Art Department of the Oakland Museum of California holds the largest collection of Lange's photographs; their website is impeccably arranged and provides a clear breakdown of the different phases of her career, which lasted until her death in 1965. Her later works will not be discussed in this unit; however, be sure to make mention of them when we look at the Civil Rights Movement to demonstrate other modes of documentation for the culminating project. (See the section on
Culminating Project
.)
