Explore White Angel Bread Line

Read About a Photograph by Dorothea Lange

In this photograph taken by Dorothea Lange, you can see a big crowd of men standing very close together. They are waiting in line. Most of the men have their backs turned away from the camera, but one man near the front is facing us. He’s wearing a hat that covers his eyes, while leaning on a wooden fence. His hands are folded together, and you can see an empty tin cup resting on his arms.

All of these men were waiting in what was called a “breadline”—a place where people lined up to get free food during the Great Depression. During the Depression, many people didn’t have jobs or money to buy food. A rich man in San Francisco, California, who people called the “White Angel,” organized this particular breadline to help feed hungry people.

Lange’s friends warned her to stay away from places like this. They thought it might be dangerous. But one day in 1933, she left her photography studio and went anyway. She took this powerful photograph, showing how sad and hopeless these unemployed men felt as they waited for food and hoped for a chance to find work.

Later, Lange said that taking this photograph changed her life. She realized that her camera could tell important stories about real people and their struggles. This moment helped her understand what kind of photographer she wanted to be. She wrote:

That’s the first day I ever made a photograph actually on the street. I put it on the wall of my studio, and customers, people whom I was making portraits of, would come in and glance at them. And the only comment I ever got was ”What are you going to do with this kind of thing?” I didn’t know. But I knew that picture was on my wall, and I knew that it was worth doing.

Soon after photographing White Angel Bread Line, she said, “I’d begun to get a much firmer grip on the things I really wanted to do in my work.”

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• How would you describe the expression on the face of the man turned toward the viewer? What might he be thinking about?
• Would the meaning of this picture change if some of the men faced the camera, instead of just one? Explain your answer.
• Compare the clothing and expression of the man who faces the camera with the appearance of the other men in the picture. Why do you think Lange chose him?
• Do you think a person needs to experience unemployment and hunger to understand this photograph?
• Who should see this photograph? How do you think the publication of a photo like this might help the people pictured?