[Demonstration, San Francisco]

Dorothea Lange

1933 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Following the stock market crash of 1929, Lange increasingly left her studio to photograph a rapidly growing homeless population, mostly migrant workers crowding the streets of San Francisco. This photograph was most likely made on May Day, observed by many around the world as a celebration of the international labor movement. A man looks away from the camera, his back to a banner that identifies his cause. The low viewpoint creates a sense of monumentality, thrusting the worker against the sky and boldly silhouetting his head. The exclamation point painted on the banner strikes the same chord as the daggerlike shadow that cuts across it, spearheading the emphatic and desperate imperative: FEED US!

Artist

Dorothea Lange

Date

1933

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Purchase, Joseph M. Cohen Gift, 2005