Migrant Mother Cris Ortega

Migrant Mother Discussion

by Cristobal Ortega

Florence Owens Thompson is a name that may not be familiar, but her visage inspired and illuminated many to the realities of the depression of the 1930s. According to the SFGate article, one of her children, Katherine McIntosh commented that “we were embarrassed by that picture.” The photograph itself is an image that was shot by Dorothea Lange for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, and is now hanging in the Library of Congress. 

One of the issues that this photograph raises is photographing an individual and reaping the benefits of fame while the subject of the photograph remains on with their life. Dorothea Lange was a photographer who was hired to do this job of documenting the depression, knowing that her negatives were not going to be owned or edited by her. Lange took on the job as if a journalist had been hired be a government to tell the story of the depression yet with visuals. One of the tenets of journalism is to be ethical and objective, to separate one’s self from the subject and to be able to absorb and share the story without affecting it. In this case, Lange photographed Thompson after a conversation and allegedly her permission. As pointed out by photography critic John Roberts, “Here in essence was what the magazine editors were waiting for: an image of tragedy and resistance.”

I believe that photographers are historians, just like journalists who are writing history in the present tense. Ultimately I believe that it is more important to be concerned with the preservation of opinions, of ideas, of visage through photojournalism and documentary photography through tactics like Lange pursued because they do not overly affect the subject and change the course of their life, while still impacting and inspiring the people who are consuming the image or story. The photograph is about a mother and her children, and it is also about Florence Owens Thompson and her children as individuals. However, because of the lack of research and the nature of the job of working for the FSA in those times - the photographers had less of a schedule to be able to focus on in-depth stories of a single person. It is better to be able to communicate based on what is in the public environment rather than in investigative, intensive personal private account that may be limited to one subject rather than sweeping a larger sample size of stories across the counties and country. Out of all of the images that Lange photographed, this image functions on an aesthetic level, a content level, and a socio-political level. Even if Lange made this photograph, it was never supposed to directly fundraise and change the life of an individual - it was meant to assimilate into a public discussion funded by the government about the depression. Intentions aside - the photograph serves many purposes and is an extremely valuable document and image that compels viewers regardless of their opinion on the Lange and Thompson.