{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1028857"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1028857/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GV0722/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GV0722/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GV0722","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1028857","accessionNumber":"CIRC.121-1973","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Gas Station, Kern County, California (Lettuce Strike)","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Black and white photograph of an air pump at a gas station. Beneath the two signs reading \"AIR\" is a sign reading \"This is your country don't let the big men take it away from you.\"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Dorothea Lange","id":"A10043"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"x43821"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Dorothea Lange (1865 – 1965) was an American photographer best known for her pictorial documentation of the Great Depression. In the 1920s she ran a successful portrait studio in San Francisco but turned her lens to the humanitarian crisis of Depression-era America in 1933. In 1935 she spent five years travelling and documenting migrant labourers in California and the Midwest with her second husband, the economist Paul Schuster Taylor.  Lange was one of several photographers employed by the Farm Security Administration, an economic agency formed by the Roosevelt administration to tackle rural poverty. Lange taught at the California School of Fine Arts and in 1952 co-founded the photography magazine Aperture. In 1965, three months after her death, MoMA mounted an exhibition of Lange’s work which she had helped to curate. It was the museum’s first solo retrospective exhibition by a female photographer. "}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gelatin silver process","id":"AAT139114"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"photographic paper, photography","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2013GV0722"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"101","id":"THES49933"},"free":"","case":"WW","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"United States","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"California","id":"x28779"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1938","earliest":"1938-01-01","latest":"1938-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Acquired from The Library of Congress, Washington D.C. in 1973.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"","value":"15.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1973","earliest":"1973-01-01","latest":"1973-12-31"},"part":"","note":"Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1973"},{"dimension":"","value":"14.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"1973","earliest":"1973-01-01","latest":"1973-12-31"},"part":"","note":"Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1973"}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Along with photographers such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange worked for the American government’s Farm Security Administration programme during the Great Depression of the 1930's. The F.S.A. was set up to relieve poverty in rural areas but also involved photographing conditions faced by displaced farmers who had been hit by the Depression and by drought. Lange’s Californian Migrant Mother is one of the most widely known of all photographs; the tightly composed, highly concentrated composition has made it an icon of socially committed photography.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 'Gas Station, Kern County, California (Lettuce Strike)', gelatin silver print, 1938","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1973"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"United States","id":"x29333"}],"associatedPlaces":[{"text":"United States","id":"x29333"}],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"<i>American Photographs</i> (V&amp;A, June 2025 - May 2027)\n\nDorothea Lange (1895–1965)\r\n<i><b>Gas Station, Kern County, California (Lettuce Strike)</b></i>\r\n1938, printed later\n\nDorothea Lange, like Walker Evans, worked for the US Government’s Farm Security Administration (FSA) in the 1930s. Established during the Great Depression, the FSA aimed to relieve poverty in rural areas and document conditions faced by displaced communities. Lange shot this image during the lettuce workers’ strike of 1938. The strikers’ slogan, pinned to an air pump, reflects the widespread disillusionment among workers.\n\nGelatin silver print\nMuseum no. CIRC.121-1973","date":{"text":"2025","earliest":"2025-01-01","latest":"2025-12-31"}},{"text":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["CIRC.121-1973"],"accessionNumberNum":"121","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1973,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-17","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}