Migrant mother painting. Migrant Mother 2022-10-22

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The painting "Migrant Mother" is an iconic work of art that captures the struggle and resilience of the human spirit. It was created by photographer Dorothea Lange in 1936, during the Great Depression, when thousands of migrant farm workers were traveling across the United States in search of work and a better life.

The subject of the painting is Florence Owens Thompson, a 32-year-old mother of seven who was living in a camp for migrant farm workers in California. Lange encountered Thompson and her family while working for the Farm Security Administration, a government agency that was tasked with documenting the lives of poor and working-class Americans.

Lange took six photographs of Thompson and her children, but it was the one that became known as "Migrant Mother" that would go on to become one of the most famous images of the Great Depression. In the painting, Thompson is depicted with a weary, yet determined look on her face as she gazes off into the distance. Her hands are folded in her lap and she is surrounded by her children, who are huddled close to her for warmth and comfort.

The painting "Migrant Mother" has become an enduring symbol of the struggles and hardships faced by migrant farm workers during the Great Depression. It serves as a reminder of the resilience and strength of the human spirit in the face of difficult circumstances. Despite the challenges she faced, Thompson was able to provide for her family and persevere through difficult times.

Today, "Migrant Mother" is seen as an important piece of American history, and it continues to inspire people around the world with its powerful message of hope and determination.

Migrant Mother

migrant mother painting

How would you use this photograph to build on one of your units of study? But out of the corner of my eye I did see it. As a mother herself and a photographer of the working-class people, Lange was aware of this imprisonment and shared the complex anxiety felt by the mother. Writing opportunity: Argument essay. Prints from this negative are considered the true, first iteration of the portrait—in other words, the vintage print. All those things at once. This was intentional as Lange instructed the two children to turn their backs to the camera and rest their hands on their mother's shoulders. In order to remove any possibility of competing gazes and any exchanges that might create unwanted effects, Lange asked both children to turn their backs towards the camera and place their hands on their mother's shoulders.

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Lens

migrant mother painting

Her expression and juxtaposition with her children and clothing indicates that the family is overcome by circumstances they cannot control, thus removing any blame from the mother. She did not editorialize or judge in her notes. A 14×11-inch print of During the tumultuous era of the late 1960s through the early 1970s images increasingly dominated popular culture, and a bona fide commercial marketplace for fine art photographs emerged. Click on the painting for a high quality image that can be magnified. Begin with art history Dorothea Nutzhorn was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1895.

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Migrant Mother: Histories and Mythologies

migrant mother painting

The surrounding environment seems barren, beaten down, and littered with garbage. This photograph explores themes and images that should be somewhat familiar to students. It does not need to be a human subject. Each week, The New York Times publishes a photograph without a caption and invites students to discuss what they see and what they think it means. How did Dorothea Lange impact the nation? She felt like she was starting a new chapter in her life and felt more in control. The absence of any space between the mother and children implies that the family have become one flesh in their suffering.

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The Social Document: Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother'

migrant mother painting

Migrant Mother not only came to define the deserving poor displaced by the Great Depression, but she also symbolized the exhausted landscape and depleted resources that uprooted her and thousands of other migrant workers. However, when the Great Depression started, she turned her lens from the studio to the street. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Why do you think the final portrait became the most publicized of the series? Meister said, most likely inaccurate: Ms. Visually referencing this Christian tradition also creates an opportunity to consider another Christian tradition, the Golden Rule. Literature Links: What piece of literature would you partner with Migrant Mother? The mother looks tired and worn in her makeshift tent home. I did not ask her name or her history.

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Iconic Artworks: Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother

migrant mother painting

Of the twenty-five hundred people in this camp most of them were destitute Turn, Talk, and Report Back Possible answers: The first shot provides more context, locating the family in place and time. She argues that because the children are so close to their mother that through this visual compression, the merged mother with her children represents a sort of bondage. Once Thompson and her family came to know this, they withdrew their complaint and now speak positively about Lange. Dorothea Lange, After returning to Oakland, Lange contacted local newspapers about the large camps of destitute migrant laborers. In the manipulation of her photograph Lange created a composition with links to other images in art history.

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The Real Story Behind the ‘Migrant Mother’ Great Depression

migrant mother painting

The pea crop had frozen; there was no work. Consider the role titles play in your interpretation of this photograph. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. Lange had an assistant retouch the negative and remove Ms. Lange slowly approached the woman but did not ask her name or details of her personal history. By closely framing the distant gaze of the woman, surrounded by her children, she encourages our empathy.

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Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California. March 1936

migrant mother painting

Is Migrant Mother an objective record or is it a form of artistic expression? She uses her skills as a portrait artist —angle, cropping, editing—to heighten the effect she is looking for. In fact, photography scholar Sally Stein writes that if the photograph depicted the mother without her children, the photograph would have much less power. But I did not approach the tents and shelters of other stranded pea-pickers. Her photographs, notably White Angel Bread Line 1933 , received immediate recognition and led to a commission in 1935 from the U. Each print was undoubtedly generated by a darkroom technician, in other words, Lange had no hand in its creation since, like all FSA photographers, she had relinquished her negatives to the agency.

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Migrant Mother, behind the Icon

migrant mother painting

NOW GET THE LEAD OUT AND GIVE ME ONE MORE PIECE, OR ONE MORE ACT OF KINDNESS, OR…. Migrant Mother in a magazine and wrote to the magazine asking them to recall all unsold magazines to protect her and her family's rights. To turn back certainly is not necessary. At Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. Thus any potential inaccuracy is virtually irrelevant. Why is the migrant mother in the public domain? But out of the corner of my eye I did see it.

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How did Migrant Mother change the world?

migrant mother painting

These need not be mutually exclusive positions but arguing this question sets the groundwork for further reflection. Since its publication, Migrant Mother has become an icon of the Great Depression. In contrast, Migrant Mother is more universal, than specific. What is the situation back there? Lange continued to move in, finding other angles. Lange's image of a supposed migrant pea picker, Florence Owens Thompson, and her family has become an icon of resilience in the face of adversity.

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Migrant Mother, 1936

migrant mother painting

Many of the photographs can also be seen as propaganda images to support the U. They huddle together and look away in a beleaguered stare. For Lange, this expression spoiled the image. Thus, the viewer's attention is immediately drawn towards the mother's anxious face rather than her children. Her sense of commitment and her ability to distill very important and complex arguments into imagery that made those arguments seem absolutely impossible to ignore. As unemployment swept the U. But since Lange had been in a hurry to get home, and did not supply her own descriptive captions, picture editors provided their own.

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