The Migrant Mother – Dorothea Lange

This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID fsa.8b29516

As the Great Depression gripped the nation some of the most influential American documentary photographers came into their own. Dorothea Lange was one of these pioneers of photojournalism. A fiercely independent woman, she with little more than her camera and a beat up car gave the Great Depression a human face.

Her most iconic image was the 1936 photo called Migrant Mother. More than any other image, this photo has come to be the illustration of that era.  There is barely a textbook or webpage about this dark time in American history, which does not contain a copy of this image.  The image is of Florence Owens Thompson. It is part of a series of photos Lange took of Thompson and her Children. Lange spent a month documenting the struggles of migrant workers in California while working for the Resettlement Administration that was part of FDR's National Recovery Administration.

I would consider it a classic example of American Portraiture. All you need to know about the human side of Great Depression can be summed up in this simple yet profound image.

This image is significant because not only did it serve to define the great Depression by its incredible and human narrative, it set the stage for those photographers who would follow in the decades to come.

When you see a contemporary photo of a homeless person or any image that tells a story of human struggle; odds are the photographer who took it was influenced by the stunning work of Lange and her contemporaries. They came to define the art of photojournalism as we know it today.