Migrant mother photo
I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me.
There was a sort of equality about it.
Dust bowl woman photographer biography wikipedia
The pea crop at Nipomo had frozen and there was no work for anybody. But I did not approach the tents and shelters of other stranded pea-pickers. It was not necessary; I knew I had recorded the essence of my assignment. Migrant Mother —which reveals an anxious mother holding a baby as two of her other children bury their heads on her shoulders—draws on the familiar trope of the Madonna and Child in Christian art as it evokes sympathy and, ideally, a spirit of humanitarian generosity toward its subjects.
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother , digital file of black-and-white film copy negative of unretouched file print showing thumb holding a tent pole in the lower right corner Library of Congress , Washington, D. When Dorothea took that picture, that was the ultimate. She never surpassed it. To me, it was the picture of Farm Security. The others were marvelous but that was special.
Instead, the pictured mother stands for the plight of suffering, poverty, and uncertainty among rural laborers during the Great Depression. Migrant Mother immediately was and still is circulated by the U. The San Francisco News , March 10, She was a leader.
Female photographer
Owens—a woman of color—felt forever stereotyped as the destitute, suffering mother, trapped in poverty by the repeated reproductions of her image that appeared in newspapers, magazines, art exhibitions, on the pages of our history books, and on postage stamps, t-shirts, parodic magazine illustrations, and trinkets. In , after Migrant Mother was included in exhibitions and published widely for two decades, Owens wrote a letter to one publication, U.
Camera , and insisted on being consulted about future plans to publish the image. She asked for all copies of that issue of U. Florence Owens Thompson died in September , just after her 80th birthday, ending a life marked by economic hardship, maternal sacrifice and human dignity. Thompson's passing represents the loss of an American who symbolizes strength and determination in the midst of the Great Depression.
You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States. Your Profile. Email Updates. She said she'd send me a copy. She never did. However, the picture did help make her a celebrity and earned her "respect from her colleagues. While the image was being prepared for exhibit in , [ 18 ] the negative of the photo was retouched to remove Florence's thumb from the lower-right corner of the image.
In the late s, Bill Hendrie found unretouched prints by Lange of Migrant Mother and 31 other images from the same series in a dumpster at the San Jose Chamber of Commerce.
Dust bowl woman photographer biography images
In , the retouched photo of Migrant Mother became a cent U. Postal Service stamp in the s portion of the Celebrate the Century series. In the same month the U. Thompson's children bought her a house in Modesto, California , in the s, but she preferred living in a mobile home and moved back into one. Thompson was hospitalized and her family appealed for financial help in late August Thompson died of " stroke , cancer and heart problems " at Scotts Valley, California , on September 16, , at age In a interview with CNN, one of Thompson's daughters, Katherine McIntosh, recalled her mother as a "very strong lady", and "the backbone of our family".
She said: "We never had a lot, but she always made sure we had something. She didn't eat sometimes, but she made sure us children ate. That's one thing she did do. After all those letters came in, I think it gave us a sense of pride. Lange took seven photos that day, the last being Migrant Mother. The following are the six other photos:. Contents move to sidebar hide.
Famous woman photographer: Florence Owens Thompson (born Florence Leona Christie; September 1, – September 16, ) was an American woman who was the subject of Dorothea Lange's photograph Migrant Mother (), considered an iconic image of the Great Depression.
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Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. American farm worker, subject of Dorothea Lange's photo 'Migrant Mother' — For the Manitoba librarian, see Florence Davy Thompson. Migrant Mother , taken by Dorothea Lange in Indian Territory present-day Oklahoma. Scotts Valley, California , U. Biography [ edit ]. Migrant Mother [ edit ]. Main article: Migrant Mother.
Circulation [ edit ]. Later life, death, and aftermath [ edit ]. Other six photographs [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. The Ledger. Retrieved November 8, March 4, Retrieved September 3, CR Magazine.
Archived from the original on March 1, Retrieved September 14, Archived from the original on August 24, Retrieved August 24, Dorothea Lange. Gordon, Linda Second ed. New York City. OCLC Archived from the original on April 1, Retrieved April 4, The photographs of Dorothea Lange. Davis, Keith F. Kansas City, Missouri. Abrams, New York.
Dorothea Lange ISBN X. January 30, Archived from the original on January 30, Retrieved February 3, Archived from the original on May 17, Retrieved June 29, Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, Dorothea Lange — announced her intention to become a photographer at age After apprenticing with a photographer in New York City, she moved to San Francisco and in established her own studio.
Dorothea Lange: Photographer of the People. Archived from the original on October 15, Retrieved April 26, The Hindu. Archived from the original on October 17, Popular Photography. Archived PDF from the original on February 26, Retrieved March 18, American Masters. August 30, Archived from the original on September 12, Retrieved September 10, New Times.
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Dust bowl woman photographer biography
May 8, Archived from the original on November 21, Retrieved February 10, San Francisco, April Berkeley, California. Densho Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on August 14, Retrieved August 28, Women's Camera Work. The New York Times.