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Dimensions: measurements note 8 7/8 by 7 in. (22.6 by 17.8 cm.)

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Provenance: By descent to John Dixon, the photographer's sonEdwynn Houk Gallery, ChicagoPrivate Collector, San Francisco, acquired from the above, 1990

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Notes: This photograph was made by Lange in San Francisco, presumably during the strike of the maritime unions in 1934. The year before, Lange had left the safety of her commercial portrait studio and begun her career as a documentary photographer. In the early days of the 1930s, millions were unemployed across America, and in San Francisco Lange saw hundreds who were homeless, hungry, or without prospects. The maritime strikes were by far the most violent symptom of the Depression to hit San Francisco, and it was a dangerous time to be photographing on the streets. Protestors and police clashed repeatedly, exchanging volleys of bricks and teargas canisters. The San Francisco waterfront was ultimately taken over by the National Guard after the particularly fierce clash of 5 July 1934, known as 'Bloody Thursday.' Lange, whose innate humanitarianism pervades the entirety of her oeuvre, photographed these events avidly. As a commercial portrait photographer, Lange had depended upon her talent for photographing faces. Much of her documentation of the 1934 strikes is done through her photographs of the participants' faces: the fiery labor organizers rallying the demonstrators, as well as individuals within the crowd. All of the intensity of the situation and the desperation and need of the demonstrators is conveyed through Lange's photographs of faces. As with the classic images she would make later in the decade under the auspices of the Resettlement and Farm Security Administrations--Drought Refugees from Oklahoma in California (Lot 33) and Six Tenant Farmers Without Farms (Lot 135) among them--the photograph offered here shows Lange's ability to document hard times while simultaneously revealing the strength and dignity of her subjects.