Brief Biography of Berenice Abbott

To begin with, description is utilized to show that pictures are worth more than words. In Lange’s image, the woman looks exhausted and the children seem saddened. Viewers of the image see this by their facial expressions. For instance, two of the children are looking away from the photographer and the woman has no smile on her face. Moreover, onlookers observe how people lived during the Great Depression in the west coast. Viewers of the image see this by their clothing. For example, the woman and children are wearing tattered, dirty clothing. The overall picture represents what people went through during the Great Depression without ever telling the audience it was taken during this

Winogrand took photos of everything he saw; he always carried a camera or two, loaded and prepared to go. He sought after to make his photographs more interesting than no matter what he photographed. Contrasting many well-known photographers, he never knew what his photographs would be like he photographed in order to see what the things that interested him looked like as photographs. His photographs resemble snapshots; street scenes, parties, the zoo. A critical artistic difference between Winogrand's work and snapshots has been described this way, the snapshooter thought he knew what the subject was in advance, and for Winogrand, photography was the process of discovering it. If we recall tourist photographic practice, the difference becomes clear: tourists know in advance what photographs of the Kodak Hula Show will look like. In comparison, Winogrand fashioned photographs of subjects that no one had thought of photographing. Again and again his subjects were unconscious of his camera or indifferent to it. Winogrand was a foremost figure in post-war photography, yet his pictures often appear as if they are captured by chance. To him and other photographers in the 1950s, the previous pictures seemed planned, designed, visualized, understood in advance; they were little more than pictures, in actual fact less, because they claimed to be somewhat else the examination of real life. In this sense, the work of Garry Winogrand makes a motivating comparison to Ziller's

Photos are just recorded information and how it is presented is actually based on individual interpretation by the photographers themselves. It is not absolute reality because the viewers themselves are not there to witness the event; therefore it is not entirely factual. The meaning of a photo illustration is also dependent on viewers' individual views and assumption. As the old metaphor says, "is the glass of milk half full or half empty?"

Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother is a photograph that documents a moment of distress within American history. The image works as a visual representation of suffering for those who were lucky enough not to live within the Dust Bowl region. To many it is uncertain if Lange’s image became an American Icon because of the struggle it presented or because of the eye capturing composition of it. However, with this image came forth the issue of a photos validity after photo manipulation, as Lange edited the image by removing the thumb of the mother who was a large subject. Despite the slight manipulation in Migrant Mother, the photograph still presents the situation truthfully, making the photograph function as both a work of art and a historical document.

You Have Seen Their Faces by Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell is a photo documentary of life in the South during the Great Depression. After reading You Have Seen Their Faces along with critiques of it by Rabinowitz and Snyder, I found myself more interested in the topic of how motherhood was depicted in the book. Rabinowitz brought up that middle class women felt the need to regulate the poor women because they weren 't feminine enough or motherly enough which is the main attitude involved in slumming. By observing Margaret Bourke-White’s photos I found two distinct classes of these types of images: positive and negative. I was curious as to the deeper meanings behind these two classes of photos and what this meant about Bourke-White’s perspective of her subjects. Another point of interest is how and if the captions of these photos of mothers cause the images to be interpreted differently.

When initially looking at the iconic black and white photo, one sees a woman and two children. After closely examining the image, one sees the third child, an infant, being held by the woman.The woman is not looking directly at the camera, but the audience is able to see her gaze. The woman’s eyebrows are furrowed causing her face to appear as worried with a look of desperation. Looking more meticulously at the woman, one will notice that she has a slight frown. The woman is able to show her stress by using her right hand to pull down slightly on her face. Aside from the woman, there are three children in the photograph. Two of the children are facing away from the camera with their heads rested on the woman’s shoulder. The third child is an infant who seems to be sleeping while this photograph was taken. The woman and children in the photo are migrants that are trying to survive the Great Depression and

In the article, “Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, and the Culture of the Great Depression” by James C. Curtis, we understand what it takes to get the perfect photo to represent a message. Dorothea Lange became very popular during her time and is known especially for her photo, Migrant Mother, which documents life during the Great Depression. James C. Curtis does a good job explaining the artistic decisions to this most famous shot and how many different steps Lange took in order to really create a powerful message depicting life in poverty.

The first photograph I am going to discuss is photo of Ellery Shufelt with his children in Albany County, New York. Arthur Rothstein took this photograph in 1937, which was when the Great Depression was taking place in the United States. This photograph depicts many of these formal elements and techniques such as, framing, lighting, composition, and space to help portray the true meaning of the image. Arthur Rothstein uses the technique known as composition, which can be defined as the organization of the photograph by inserting elements in particular places and sizes. This assumption can be made because Rothstein places the Ellery Shufelt and his children in specific areas of the photograph to help capture an emotion or option about how people live and work American society at this time. Also, the framing and position of the door and chair outlines the photograph asymmetrically for the viewer. The door offsets the image by dividing the image with a vertical line. This basically crops the photograph making the viewer focus on the father and his children rather than the background itself. In addition, the level the camera intensifies the feeling and framing by making you feel eye level with the subjects. The use of framing allowed the photograph to make you focus and control how you perceive the image.

The photograph “Migrant Mother” was taken by Dorothea Lange in the year 1936 in Nipomo, California. The photograph depicts a mother by the name of Florence Owens Thompson. Thompson was a mother of seven, and her photograph because an iconic symbol of the Great Depression. The Grapes of Wrath, a novel about the migration during the 1930’s, was influenced by “Migrant Mother.”

Before starting this project, I knew very little about photography, photographers, or exactly how much impact photographical images have had on our society. I have never taken a photography class, or researched too in depth about specific pictures or photographers. This project has allowed me to delve deeper into the world of photography in order to understand just how much influence pictures can have over society’s beliefs, emotions, and understandings’. I have have chosen two highly influential photographers, Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange, who I have found to both resonate with me and perfectly capture human emotions in way that moves others.

Some people refer to Alfred as the father of photojournalism because his photos were good. One could observe classical balances, sharp inequalities of light and shadow, and dominant vectors of confining and expansion, as in the active movement up the street into the space and light of Times Square. Those are the artistic illusions that the photojournalists emulate up to date and will continue into the future (Clpgh.org, 2015).

Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” uncovers the strength of a mother trying to comfort her children as she silently harbors the desperation and fear of her family during the depression. The photograph exhibits a migrant mother sitting with her attire dirty and ragged followed by her children's. All seem to be malnourished and not living a suitable lifestyle. The two kids around age four or five are leaning tilted inwards with an infant lying on the mother’s lap. The mother’s face is dirty and shows fear as her children also look vulnerable and scared with their heads buried in their mother's shoulder for comfort and support.

Migrant Mother is a picture taken by Dorothea Lange in 1963. The location in which the photograph was taken is at a camp for seasonal agricultural workers 175 miles north of Los Angeles by Dorothea Lange. In the image we see a women with desperate look in her eyes wearing a gray shirt with a baby in her lap, and two children holding on to her shoulder, one on her right and the other

Dorothea Lange is an experienced photographer, born on the 26th day of March 1895. Her works have been a source of insight for many people and this has proved very effective to contemporary photographers. There are many works that this woman did during her time and it is important to acknowledge them. Migrant Mother is one of these works and the applause that it has gotten from the viewers clearly portrays expertness at its best. The photo revolves around the life and family of one Florence Owens Williams and was taken in 1936 in California Florida. Going through the various elements of this photograph is effective in ensuring that one understands the deep concepts that revolve around it.

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still". -Dorothea Lange