This photograph is considered to be a very iconic image that is well known to all people. It was taken by photographer Dorothea Lange and named “Migrant Mother”. The visual of this image without any knowledge of the historical background suggests despair and struggle. It is clear on how the children burry their face in the woman shoulders, who is their mother. The face of the woman clearly does not show any form of excitement or happiness. Rather, the expression provides struggle, strength, and distress. Also, drawing attention to the quality of the clothing, it does not appear that this family is living a lavish lifestyle, one can assume their life can be scarce or lacking in some sort.  

To fully appreciate what you are presented with you must understand the historical background one this image and how it came about. As stated previously, this image was taken by Dorothea Lange during the Great Depression, March 1936. The Great Depression was a time in history where struggle was a common theme in everyone’s life due to the Stock Market Crash, which essentially started the Great Depression. It was an era of severe economic decline that lasted for years. Drawing back to the image, Dorothea had met this woman and her children in the photo after an assignment she had embarked on for about a month. It was also rare to produce photographs of social problems, at that time only anthropologists had begun photographs (Rae Meadows). She traveled back alone in her car and passed by a sign that stated “Pea Pickers Camp”. At first, she was hesitant to stop, in fact she continued driving but had the urge to circle back to what she described as an instinct (Carole Henry). She had more than enough negatives from the other photos she took for her assignment, yet she felt a need to make this stop. In her stop, she was introduced to a thirty-two-year-old mother who vocalized to Dorothea that her and her kids have been eating frozen vegetables and birds that were caught by her children. She had also sold the tires of her car to buy food. A very unpleasant life as you can already assume from the image itself. Continuing on, Dorothea asked the mother if she can photograph her and her family and the mother without any hesitation approved. Now this image has been passed throughout history carrying so many emotions to it, but most importantly expresses the quality of life at that time period. Her face has become the reminder of the despair of the Great Depression, but besides that it shows her strength through the battles we as the viewer do not know but salute her for.  

The Great Depression had a major impact on so many people. Even those who were fortunate before the Great Depression faced struggle. They needed help from other people, and when provided by churches, organizations, etc., they had a very hard time accepting it. It was a disgrace to them as they were used to a different lifestyle and could not fathom the thought of having to ask or rely on others for help. Besides that, there were many people who were jobless, homeless, and hungry. This all occurred because the economy collapsed due to the stock crash overproduction and underconsumption (David E). In the span of those years, there was a lot of hardships such as the Dust Bowl, which were dust storms that occurred due to environmental destruction from agriculture practices. This forced families to leave their home in search of a new life to support their families. To add to all this distress, there was also a tax increase (David E). In sum, life was mostly difficult and a chance of improvement seemed very intangible. Bringing back focus to Dorothea piece, and now all the historical knowledge provided to further understand this image, you are now able to fully appreciate this piece. To fully understand how this piece carries on year after year. It displays a lot of emotions and holds an immense amount of weight on the hardships of everything that occur during the Great Depression. The woman in the picture is not only shedding light to her and her family circumstances but also all the individuals we do not know struggles as well.  

Dorothea Lange’s has so many photographs that draw attention to this time period. Here is a link that supplies numerous photographs of this historical period, along with some of her other works(Click here). Take in each photo and use your understanding of what you learned from this photo and the historical events to understand what Dorothea is trying to convey to the viewer.