Learning To See

Hooper (The Other Alcott) tells a fictionalized account of photographer Dorothea Lange, famous for her depictions of people suffering in the Great Depression and World War II Japanese internment camps. Starting with Lange's arrival in San Francisco in 1918, the book depicts her tempestuous marriage to artist Maynard Dixon, the birth of their two sons, her growing skill and fame as a photographer, her work with the Depression Era Resettlement Administration, and her eventual marriage to professor Paul Taylor. Lange felt conflicting desires to create art, serve the downtrodden, and be with her children, whom she sent into foster care for large portions of their childhoods. Short chapters set in 1964 show her continuing rocky relationship with son Dan. The book describes the creation of some of her most famous images, including source notes and small thumbnail pictures. The background depicts many other famous people Lange knew and worked with, such as novelist John Steinbeck and photographer Ansel Adams.