We Can Do Anything: From sports to innovation, art to politics, meet over 200 women who got there first. Chuck Gonzales

at the age of 85. After that, she had the help of several assistants and continued to create beautiful art that she pictured in her imagination. Georgia was painting at a time when most famous artists were men, but she continued with her unique style and found great success. Her work is described as distinctly “female” for its curvy, “feminine” lines and close-ups, as well as her focus on nature. She has become a feminist icon, both for her distinct style and determination. Georgia was awarded the National Medal of Arts, in 1977, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1985, for her huge contribution to the arts. She remains one of the most important and influential American painters of all time and is known as the Mother of American Modernism.

DOROTHEA LANGE INFLUENTIAL DOCUMENTARIAN AND PHOTOJOURNALIST

      FULL NAME: Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn Lange

      BORN: MAY 26, 1895, HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A

      DIED: OCTOBER 11, 1965, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.

      NATIONALITY: AMERICAN

      “America Survives the Depression,” a 1998 U.S. postage stamp, features Dorothea’s iconic 1936 “Migrant Mother” photograph.

      TOP OF HER GAME

      Among famous photographers, Dorothea Lange ranks right at the top, alongside Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Annie Leibovitz. Dorothea’s black-and-white photographs of America’s Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s helped create the genre of documentary photography we know today.

      At the age of seven, Dorothea contracted polio, a potentially fatal infectious disease that affects the muscles. Dorothea survived, but her right leg was badly affected, which left her with a permanent limp. However, she believed this condition helped form the person she would become. Dorothea studied photography at Colombia University, and in her early 20s she set out to travel the world. She only got as far as San Francisco—but her thwarted plans would result in some of the most iconic images of America in history. For a time, Dorothea ran a portrait studio in San Francisco, but then the Great Depression hit. This was a time of severe economic depression, with hardship, high unemployment, and widespread poverty. The Depression started in the U.S.A. after a fall in prices on the stock market, before reaching around the globe.

      THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPH

      Dorothea saw what was happening around her and decided to take her camera to the streets. She began documenting the struggles around her: soup kitchens, unemployed workers, and starving families. She was hired by the U.S. government’s Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration) to capture daily life in America. Dorothea’s most iconic photo—and arguably the most famous photo of American life—is called “Migrant Mother,” taken in 1936. It shows children huddled around their young mother, a portrait of complete despair. This photo made the public realize the Depression’s very real impact and also raised the bar of documentary photography. The photograph prompted the U.S. government to rush aid to its people. In 1940, Dorothea won the very prestigious Guggenheim fellowship—the first woman to do so. She was gifted at making the people she photographed feel respected and listened to. Her work made a significant difference to the lives of many.

      With the start of World War II, Dorothea was again hired by the U.S. government. This time it was to take photos of Japanese Americans who had been put into “detention camps” (prisons for whole groups of people for “security” during wartime). These photographs were so critical of the government, the Army kept them hidden from view for decades. Dorothea traveled widely for the rest of her life, and she went on to document the lives of people from as far afield as Utah to Vietnam, Ireland to Pakistan.

      Dorothea Lange’s work forever changed the course of photojournalism: she was able to give her stories heart. Her work continues to influence the work of photographers around the globe to this day.

      Dorothea documented the hardships faced by the American people. In this 1937 photograph, she shows cotton sharecroppers toiling on the land in Greene County, Georgia.

ANNI ALBERS MOST INFLUENTIAL TEXTILE ARTIST OF THE 20^TH CENTURY

      FULL NAME: Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann Albers

      BORN: JUNE 12, 1899, BERLIN, GERMANY

      DIED: MAY 9, 1994, ORANGE, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A.

      NATIONALITY: GERMAN/AMERICAN

      The German Bauhaus art movement included everything from architecture to object design, furniture to textiles.

      THE ART OF WEAVING

      Anni Albers was the most significant textile designer of the 20th century. Technically, “textiles” refer to any woven objects, such as items made from yarn, fibers, or any other material, that can be used for practical or decorative purposes. This includes anything from a quilt or clothing to wall hanging or sculpture. Textiles have been around since the earliest civilizations, but textile arts had a surge in popularity at the start of the 20th century. Anni played a pivotal part in this: she helped re-establish textiles as an art form.

      Anni and her husband, Josef Albers, were members of the Bauhaus movement—a German art movement that celebrated the connection between architecture and crafts. Anni’s distinctive textile works had a very architectural and industrial feel to them. This was a completely new take on the traditional world of textiles as a very delicate and feminine craft. Anni used everything to create her pieces, including metal, plastic, and even horse hair. Anni and Josef moved to the U.S.A. after the outbreak of World War II, when the Nazi Party closed the Bauhaus School. In 1949, Anni had a solo exhibition at New York’s prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)—she was the first textile artist ever to do so. Anni was also a very talented printmaker, but it was for her textile work that she made the biggest mark on the history of art. For Anni and Joseph Albers, art was part of everyday life. Anni’s groundbreaking work, combined with the Albers’ shared artistic vision, remains the single biggest contribution to textile art of the 20th century.

WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY

      DOROTHEA LANGE

      MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE

      Female photographers have had a considerable role to play in the advancement of photography, both as an important art form and a hard-hitting social commentary that can make us change the way we perceive our very existence.

      Julia Margaret Cameron saw photography as an opportunity to tell a story, and even to see into a person’s very soul. Diane Arbus and Sarah Moon had great talent and unique style, while Annie Leibowitz is famous across the globe for her gorgeous contemporary portraits. Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, and Lee Miller had great courage as well as an incredible eye, and each brought something unique: Dorothea gave heart to the genre of photojournalism; Margaret epitomized bravery as a pioneering combat zone photographer; and Lee Miller, model-turned-war correspondent/photographer, delivered honest accounts of life in war. Their remarkable work can be seen online and in galleries and museums all over the world.

      LEE MILLER

      ANNIE