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Dorothea Lange: A Portrait of an Era

Photojournalist Dorothea Lange’s photos help us understand the Great Depression

March 2013

Photojournalist Dorothea Lange, 1936. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Dorothea Lange left her comfortable life as a portrait photographer to document conditions in rural America.

Do you carry a camera so you can snap pictures anytime you like? Maybe you even post them online for your friends to see. You’re not alone. Because the digital camera is so common today, we are living in the most photographed period in history.

A photojournalist, or someone who tells stories using pictures, carries a camera everywhere. He or she captures an era in history, a moment in time, or a culture through the use of photos. Turn to the cover. The woman in the picture is Dorothea Lange, one of the first photojournalists, and she is holding her camera. Even though it is very large, especially compared with today’s camera phones, she carried it everywhere she went and took some of the most important pictures of the time in which she lived.

Photographing the Aftermath

On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. The country spiraled downward into the Great Depression—the worst economic collapse in modern history. Banks failed, companies folded, and many people lost everything.

In 1935, Lange went on the road to take photographs for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The FSA was a government program for improving the lives of poor farmers. One of the agency’s projects was providing photographs of farmworkers and their living conditions free to newspapers and magazines. This raised awareness of what was happening to the rural poor and prompted people in other parts of the country to help those who were struggling.

Toward Los Angeles, California, 1937. Photographic print, Gelatin silver, 9 x 9 ¼ in. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Two men head west in search of a better life during the Great Depression. How might they have felt about the billboard suggesting they relax and “try the train”?

Deep in the Dust Bowl

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), Family between Dallas and Austin, Texas, 1936. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

How can you tell that the land in this picture is not suitable for farming?

In addition to the economic depression, a severe drought across the Great Plains created a condition known as the Dust Bowl. The dry soil was useless for farming, and massive dust storms blackened the skies. Because no work was available on farms, about 2.5 million people packed up their belongings and fled the Dust Bowl during the 1930s.

In Lange’s photo, right, the vehicle in the foreground is surrounded by a barren landscape that recedes to the horizon line in the background. The family seems isolated in this vast, desolate field.

The family’s truck is carefully packed and the passengers sit on top of their bedding. The father is beneath the car fixing a tire. He told Lange, “It’s tough, but life’s tough anyway you take it.”

Many people, like the two men in Toward Los Angeles, above, headed to California in search of work. The road stretches ahead of them to the horizon and the unknown. The edge of the road on the right, the telephone poles on the left, and even the dusty tire tracks are leading lines, pulling the viewer’s eye deeper into the image. Lange took this photo while standing behind the men, inviting the viewer to experience this photo from the subjects’ point of view. Why might point of view be important for FSA photographs?

Migrant Mother. Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California, 1936. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Why do you think these children turned their faces away from the camera?

Mom’s Portrait Makes History

In 1936, Lange visited a migrant pea-pickers’ camp in Nipomo, California. There, she met Florence Thompson, the woman in the portrait above. Thompson was 32 and had seven children.  

In this composition, which became known as Migrant Mother, the woman’s deeply lined, worried face is the focal point. Thompson stares into the distance, distractedly bringing her hand to her chin. A baby rests in her lap, and two small children cling to either side of her. The children turn their faces away from the camera, leaning against Thompson. This arrangement helps to emphasize the mother’s central role, both in the photograph and the family.

The image is cropped so the figures fill the whole composition. The background is simple and uniform, which allows the viewer’s attention to rest on the figures.

Migrant Mother is Lange’s most iconic photograph—a symbol of a specific time or event. The photographer has captured a moment of great intimacy, which helps viewers relate to the mother’s fears for her family during the Great Depression.

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