Case Study: Migrant Mother

I think it is particularly interesting that Wells looks at the image as an icon last, because it is through this lens that we relate meanings to it, but it is also the meanings given to it which frame it as an iconic image. The notion that the images symbolic value carries more weight than its reality, in the sense that it has become an iconic image is troubling, because, as Well’s illustrates through multiple contexts, its portrayal of reality helped anchor it to its actual representation during its use by the FSA. As Migrant Mother continuously moves farther away from its creation date, its representation has changed however, to that of a nostalgic view of the past, an archetypal mother figure, an anchor for America, etcetera, and thus, as Rabinowitz points out is drained of its reality and as a result becomes iconic in status. The image is an icon, because in modern society it has come to symbolize religion, culture, politics, and economics, and thus its reality in representing the original Migrant Mother is no longer apparent. While the image still speaks to the same causes, it no longer stands for simply whatever the FSA was trying to portray with it.