One afternoon in 1939, Dorothea Lange was sitting in her portrait studio in San Francisco and realized that she — and her work — could no longer simply serve the superfluous needs of affluent families while people were rioting in the Depression-stricken streets. She decided to close her studio early and take her camera out into the world, to fully experience the harsh reality surrounding her for the first time, and see if she could “grab a hunk of lightning.”