I have loved Dorothea Lange's photographs for years, and studied them over 30 years ago. But I really knew nothing about the photographer herself. This is a well written biography that describes not just this artist, but the artistic process and the Depression's effect on the photographer, as well as the photographer's effect on how we think about the Depression. It is a good reflection on what one person can do to shape public policy in a way that may not be entirely obvious, but is very real, none the less.
The one down side of the book is that Lange was not a particularly good parent. She would have been well-paired with someone who was more maternal in their approach to child rearing. While her intimate relationships were passionate, her parenting relationships were more at arms length. She was a good mentor, correctly identifying strengths in her children and step-children, but she really did not see being sure they were nurtured as primarily her responsibility. The author does not much explore (in the book) why this might have been--was it a sign of the time? Was it a necessity of her circumstance? Or was this just one flaw amongst many talents? I would recommend the book for it's pictures alone, and the story it tells is a good one.
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