Dorothea Lange Learning from the Greats

It is truth that you need to find your own trail. In order to do this you need to know and learn from the history. Today's class we learned a little be more about photographers that have been the inspirations of contemporaries photographers.

Dorothea Lange an influential documentary and photojournalist photographer is well known for her famous photograph Migrant Mother. She worked for the FSA (The black and white photographs of the Farm Security Administration Office of War Collection) The FSA photography project was responsible for creating images of the Depression in the USA. Ms. Lange’s Migrant Mother Picture is powerful and dramatic. She focused on rural theme, showing in her pictures the pain of being poor. The expression on the face of the mother is so powerful and at the same time is full of sorrow. You can see on the eyes of this woman the blues of her melancholy. You can see on her eyes that there is not future for them. You can feel her desperation. In addition, the two little boys on Migrant Mother Picture are wearing old clothes, and little frayed. We cannot see their faces, but it is evident that they are not happy. The photograph shows the struggles and sufferings of these people. The fact that two of her three children hid their faces gives mystery and intrigue. Maybe they hid their faces because they didn’t want to show their woe. This image evoke sadness, sorrow, pain, distress and powerless.

Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California 1936

Dorothea Lange 1936