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Photograph by Dorothea Lange 1935

San Bernardino County, CA, February 1935

Cottage Gardens – An Early Form of Tract Housing

Excerpt From Wiki:

Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange’s photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression.

In 1933, at the height of the Depression, approximately fourteen million people were out of work. Many of them drifted aimlessly, with no place to live, and many times without food. In addition, the dust storms of the midwest created economic havoc. Approximately 300,000 men, women and children went to California in the 1930s, hoping to find work. These migrant families were routinely called “Okies” regardless of where they came from. They traveled in beat-up cars, wandering from place to place, following the crops. Lange began to photograph these people from her studio window. Later, she left the studio so she could photograph them in the streets of California. Lange felt she had, at last, found her purpose and direction in photography. She roamed the streets with her camera, portraying the extent of the social and economic upheaval of the Depression. She was no longer a portraitist. Neither was she a photojournalist. She became known as a “documentary” photographer.[15]

Photo of Cottage Garden