Dorothea Lange Of The Migrant Mother Analysis

A destitute mother glances to the side as her two children cling to her shoulders. The photograph taken by Dorothea Lange of the Migrant Mother exists as one of the most iconic images from the years of the Great Depression. But it raises the question of what makes the photo remarkably famous. Without planning for it at the time, Lange successfully presented to the world the hardships of the Great Depression and the immense impact it created on people and their lives’. Perhaps it holds noticeable power and fame because of the posing in the photo and modeling of the woman that creates an image that does not appear to be staged, rather it seems to naturally depict suffering endured by many families.
The photograph taken by Dorothea Lange, in black and white, displays the destitution caused by the Great Depression. The woman, centered
She was thirty-two years old and had seven children which she had to support on her own. She and her family were living on the brink of starvation with the only food around being the frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields. Thompson’s husband had died of Tuberculosis four years prior. Despite her photograph being seen across the country no one knew who she was until 1978 (Phelan). A reporter discovered her when she was seventy-five and despite her desire to keep her name unknown from the public, “to spare her children the embarrassment.” (Phelan), she revealed her story. She was born in 1903 on Indian Territory in Oklahoma. She later married when she was seventeen years old and moved to California for work. She had suffered from the effects of the Great Depression for many years, “for a while, she and her children lived under a bridge…” (Phelan). Because of her long term suffering, she was easily able to become a symbol of poverty. Her pose in the photograph looked natural because living in destitution was all she had ever