Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange is an American photojournalist and a documentary photographer, in the late 1930s. Her interest in photography began in studying at Columbia University in New York City where she then voluntarily worked for many New Yorks photography studios. Between 1935 and 1939 Lange worked for the Resettlement Administration (RA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA) showing the difficult lifestyle for the poor people, her main interest was to publicise the dilemma of displaced farm families, and migrant workers. Lange images became the icon of the era, as her emotional images caught many viewers attention. One of her well known photographs which brought many people’s attention was 1934 Migrant Mother. A woman sat with her children, with a distressed look, showing the monotonous interest in her life due to the lack of vegetation in the farm. The connotation of the photograph shows the means of poverty, the dirt marks across the sleeping infant, her other two children beside her, face covered – in this photo we see children with their provider, unhappy. In reality, children will be running around uncontrollably if food was provided.