Morgan Kirol - Migrant Mother

Before reading Well’s analysis of Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange I had some previous exposure to Lange’s work in my high school art classes. Her compassionate rendition of the Depression of the 1930’s struck me as an encapsulation of the entire time period. It had given the name of the Depression an actual face. Beyond these notions, however, I had not read much analysis on its history or public reaction. Well’s analysis raised many points that lay beneath the surface of the photo. In providing some context behind the period and specifically the FSA, it becomes clear how exploited this photo became. Well’s analysis began with a breakdown of documentary photography and its purposes that helped me contextualize what this photo meant as not only a social statement, but also what its purpose was. All five of the photos Lange capture speak to the solemn state our country was in and breathe with the compassion Lange has for the woman being pictured. This compassion is what led to Lange becoming the “Mother” of documentary photography. In the analysis and work written by Lange in Illuminations, it can be deduced that Lange did not wish this label upon herself. The fact that she captured a woman, specifically a mother, in this photo which became so widely known categorized her into not just a known documentary photographer, but a female documentary photographer. Fischer made an excellent point in Illuminations when she speaks of how truth became power for woman of this time period. This was a time when it was socially acceptable for both men and woman to work but for woman to be powerful in this occupation, she had to encapsulate this sense of “truth”. Photography is described as the action of “taking a photo” not “making a photo” which breathes to our notion that photography is a form of reality. Providing truth to this reality is what made Lange’s work so famous. As Lange describes ‘she is not a one-photograph photographer but that is what she became for most who happen to know who took this famous photograph. What I love most about Lange’s writing in Illuminations was that instinct told her to turn back around. 20 miles later, Lange found herself making a U-turn and eventually parking in front of this now famous Pea-Pickers Camp. It is that instinct, that gut feeling that drives us as artists. This photo is now part of our American history and it is that drive of an artist, that tingling feeling that made that happen. Stories like Lange’s and photographs like Migrant Mother inspire me to take those risks and rely on my gut, because sometimes something beautiful comes from it.