Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was an American photographer born on 26th May 1895, New Jersey US, and died on 11th October 1965 in California, US. The style of art she did was 'Social Realism'.

Name of artwork: Migrant Mother
Date it was taken: 1936
Place: Nipomo, California
Details: The woman in the picture is Florence Owens Thompson. It was taken during the 'Great Depression' period. The woman was 32 at the time and was surviving on frozen vegetables that was around them and birds that they had managed to kill. There were many other families living like her. For many years later no one knew who she was or what her name was but eventually they tracker her down. Once she was found she gave her name and her story. She got married at 17 and by 28 she was pregnant with her 6th child. Her husband died due to Tuberculosis. In order to keep her children fed, she had to work at all kinds of jobs and picking food in whatever was in season. When she was working on the cotton harvest, she got paid 50c for every 100 pounds of cotton she picked. For a while they just lived under a bridge. When Thompson first asked to have their family photographed, they weren't that pleased. But later she got convinced that it would educate the world about the environments they lived in. It had gotten published within days and she kept the families details to herself.
Credit