Case Study: Migrant Mother

Dorothea Lange took the iconic image of a mother on the side of the road with her children in 1936.  Since its original publication, the photo has been used and seen around the world.  After reading the case study, the short article in Illuminations, and looking into the photo online, I was kind of disappointed with the image and the story behind it.  At first I was really interested in the image and Lange’s story.  I was moved by her account of how she stumbled upon this hard working mother and how the woman had struggled to support her family.  But after doing some of my own readings on the image I was disappointed to find that the woman photographed, Florence Thompson, continued to struggle throughout her life.  She never made any money off of the image, while Lange reaped all the benefits.  I understand that as a photographer, you cannot always give your models proper credit or money for letting you take their picture.  But Lange knew this image could circulate because of her job for the FSA, and she was making money off of it, even if it was only a small amount.  The least she could have done was help this mother by giving her some money to help her family.  Instead, Lange told Thompson that she wouldn’t sell the image and didn’t even have the decency to ask Thompson her name after taking such intimate photos of her and her children.