Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange

Exhibited at The Oakland Museum of California, City of Oakland, 1935
credit here

Opinion: Upon first seeing this picture on a poster in a mall when I was in elementary school I thought it was my best friend’s mother. I knew Mrs. Nelson had done modeling and I believed the picture to be staged. Now, of course, I know it was a chance shot by Dorothea Lange taken in 1935, many years before Mrs. Nelson was even born. However, I still see her every time I look at this photograph.  

Theory: Migrant Mother was taken by Dorothea Lange in 1935 as she attempted to document the lives of migratory pea pickers in California. The woman holds a baby on her lap with two younger children clinging to her and raises her hand. Both worry and strength show in her face. Lange’s piece became a propaganda of sorts for the Great Depression because it drew upon values of the time, such as family and stability. It is an example of the influence of photography. People see a picture like this and view it as reality. However, “they must acknowledge that people always read visual images through the lens of cultural conditioning” (Gardner, Page 1066). Rather than focusing on the central economic problem, the picture calls on pathos and sympathy of the viewer.