The Bohemians

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"To take a truly good picture you have to learn to see, not just look." In 1918, a young and bright-eyed Dorothea Lange arrives in San Francisco, where a disaster kick-starts a new life. Her friendship with Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, gives Dorothea entrée into Monkey Block, an artists' colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. Dorothea and Caroline eventually create a flourishing portrait studio, but a devastating betrayal pushes their friendship to the breaking point and alters the course of their lives. The Bohemians captures a glittering and gritty 1930s San Francisco, with a cast of unforgettable characters including cameos from such legendary figures as Mabel Dodge Luhan, Frida Khalo, Ansel Adams, and D.H. Lawrence. A vivid and absorbing portrait of the past, The Bohemians shows how the gift of friendship and the possibility of self-invention persist against the ferocious pull of history. As Dorothea sheds her innocence, her purpose is awakened and she grows into the figure we know from history - the artist whose iconic Depression-era photographs like "Migrant Mother" broke the hearts and opened the eyes of a nation. -- From dust jacket