"Hands off! I do not molest what I photograph, I do not meddle and I do not arrange." That was one of the principles of American photographer Dorothea Lange, whose work has provided one of the most committed social documentaries of photography in our century.
Her insightful and compassionate photographs exerted a profound influence on the development of modern documentary photography. Lange's concern for people, her appreciation of the ordinary, and the striking empathy she showed for her subjects make her unique among photographers of her day.
The astonishing range of subjects and themes addressed by Lange over a fifty-year career, coupled with her unusual sensitivity and vision, have made her photographs useful for publications and research in a wide variety of disciplines and fields.
One of the most famous and most frequently published photographs of the FSA project is Migrant Mother, the portrait of a Californian migrant worker with her three children. The face of the young woman is marked by wrinkles, the gaze full of worry directed in the distance. To the right and left the two older children, seeking protection, lean against her shoulders, hiding their faces from the camera, while the small baby has fallen asleep on its mother's lap. This highly concentrated, tightly composed image has made Dorothea Lange an icon of socially committed photography.