Picture Analysis: The Migrant Mother

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.

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.

One might say that the Great Depression was a time of despair and feeling vulnerable from those who lived through it. However, writings have shown that some Americans during this era did not give up and had an optimistic view as opposed to a pessimistic view. In “Anacostia Flats” by John Dos Passos, it shows that the ex- service men during the Great Depression had a sense of determination for getting their bonus. The film 42nd Street demonstrated the tenacious spirit of Americans who worked on a play during The Great Depression. Meridel Le Seur’s “Women in the Breadlines” depicted the reality of struggling without employment but having the will to keep trying. During these times, society had not surrendered as several of them stood up for

"Migrant Mother" has a much greater meaning to me than "Spiral Jetty", which is why I chose to preform a contextual analysis on it. This picture screams desperation and poverty to me. The artist feels sympathy for these less fortunate people, so she tries

Walters Evan’s depiction of life and the people during the depression of the 1930s is abandoned, overwhelmed, and depressed. For instance, the person wearing the suit and a hat seems overwhelmed or exhausted. He is about to collapse from all that is going on in his life. The man seems to be searching for jobs in a newspaper article because his old job went out of business due to the stock market crash during the 30s. Since he lost his job with the other few men aside him in despair as well as he is, the man is overwhelmed with what he has to do to maintain that his family is going to be okay, safe, and watched over as he tries to search for a well maintained job that’ll meet his needs. They’re posture in the picture shows that they are depressed

In the video many issues came about on how there were competing visions on providing relief to the impoverished during the Great Depression. Dorothea Lange was said to have taken six photos before capturing the famous one we know today as "Migrant Mother. " Dorothea Lange was a photojournalist in the Great Depression era, and was hoping to convey how a family should look that deserved aid. Lang had to throw out the other five photos she took because they did not convey the message she was trying to get across.

Taking photographs may seem simple, but being a photographer is more than browsing through the viewfinder and pushing the exposure button. A photographer needs to know how to analyze the scene, speak in words that language cannot, and reach to the souls of people through a picture. During the Great Depression, many photographers captured the scenes of poverty and grief. However, there was only one photographer that truly captured the souls of Americans. According to Roy Stryker, Dorothea Lange "had the most sensitivity and the most rapport with people" (Stryker and Wood 41). Dorothea Lange was a phenomenal photographer that seized the hearts of people during the 1930s and beyond, and greatly affected the times of the Great Depression.

What I learned about this migrant family shown in Migrant Mother from this close read, was that they had it hard because there food source was frozen because of the weather. In paragraph one it talks about how a photograph that Lange forward to Washington which became one of the most well-known pictures. This picture was about the migrant families. It mentions that she took around 270,000 pictures but she only took two to Washington though she didn't take "Migrant Mother". It also mentions that all these pictures where negative assembles by her team in which was known as "Resettlement and Farm Security Administration team". In paragraph two it talks about how she got her hands on "Migrant Mother". Also in this paragraph it talks about where

Deportation of illegal immigrants is a hot topic in the U.S. today. Deportees are complaining about separation of families. Furthermore, illegal immigrants are breaking the law crossing the border, in that case there is no reason to argue, the law is the law.

“The familiar faces: pitted, seamed, lined, desperate, beaten, often shamed to be photographed with their poor possessions and their misery.” This was just one account of the daily life during the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, the terrors of that decade impacted everyone differently based on their age, wealth, and social position. 40 million people had no jobs. Almost the entirety of the United States, even the world, couldn’t provide for their family (1). The terrors that walked the streets, slept in homes, and enacted violence on citizens is something no one likes to speak about.

Brithsh embassy staff should meet with the migrant domestic worker personally and explain their rights in the UK to working for another in the same mission. However with the new visa rules the employee has to leave the country if their employer does.

As the Great Depression strikes America in the 1930s, one quarter of all workers lost their jobs. Americans increasingly loose hope in their government for not providing relief or recovery. Lange took her camera to the streets and took her first photograph of the Great Depression era- The White Angel Breadline. Amy Pastan, a prominent writer of photographs stated that the White Angel Breadline is a "disturbing but beautiful image that would come to represent the face of the Great Depression" (pastan). This picture peaks into a scene at the door of a kitchen

Marisela Martinez Short, my Mother, is an emigrant from Guadalajara Mexico. Marisela was born on May 27th 1976, currently she is thirty nine years old. She immigrated to America when she was sixteen years old in 1992. I chose to interview Marisela because I find her story and the way her life changed dramatically very interesting.

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

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.