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[Demonstration, San Francisco]

1933
Not on view
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!

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [Demonstration, San Francisco]
  • Artist: Dorothea Lange (American, 1895–1965)
  • Date: 1933
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 4 3/4 × 5 5/8 in. (12.1 × 14.3 cm)
    Sheet: 4 3/4 × 5 5/8 in. (12.1 × 14.3 cm)
    Mount: 5 3/4 in. × 9 3/8 in. (14.6 × 23.8 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Joseph M. Cohen Gift, 2005
  • Object Number: 2005.100.309
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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U.S. Highway No. 40, California
Dorothea Lange
Oakland Museum of California
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White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, Dorothea Lange American, Gelatin silver print
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1933, printed 1980s
Squatter's Camp, Salinas County, California
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Library of Congress
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