Focus on this artwork and analyze the Interpretation and legacy.
Migrant Mother's furrowed brow and hand placement suggests anxiety and worry about her duties as a mother to nurture and protect her children. 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. The children leaning on their mother depicts the mother as the children's pillar of strength. The absence of any space between the mother and children implies that the family have become one flesh in their suffering. In fact, photography scholar Sally Stein writes that if the photograph depicted the mother without her children, the photograph would have much less power. 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. 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. In addition to the presence of children, Stein argued that due to these implications and lack of resolution, Migrant Mother held a sort of inner tension that added to its power.The process in which Lange obtained Migrant Mother revealed key insights into the prevailing social norms at the time and reflects key aspects in Lange's life. By 1936, Lange was married to a new man and was much happier in this marriage than her previous one. She felt like she was starting a new chapter in her life and felt more in control. Lange's process reflects this new chapter in her life. James Curtis, a scholar of FSA photography, writes, "The Migrant Mother series reflects Lange's new mood... Lange moved confidently in arranging her compositions. She knew the image she wanted, knew what to feature and what to leave out". Lange and her colleagues worked very hard to convey their subjects with dignity such that their plight would receive sympathy rather than ridicule. Her transition from photograph to photograph in the Migrant Mother series reveals this as she chooses to remove and alter key aspects of the frame in order to achieve a certain aesthetic. For example, she chooses to remove the teenager altogether from the final photographs to remove the questions such as, "Was she [the mother] a teenager herself when she gave birth to her first child?". Curtis writes, "While middle-class viewers were sympathetically disposed to the needs of impoverished children, teenagers posed thorny questions of personal responsibility".Since its publication, Migrant Mother has become an icon of the Great Depression. The photograph has always been in the public domain and since its creation it has been reproduced many times including as postage stamps, as advertisements, for charity fundraising, and as magazine covers. The Black Panthers even put an afro on the mother. However, the legacy of Migrant Mother extended further than just to media. In the summer of 1983, the photograph was published in the national press. Florence Thompson was ill with cancer, but had no insurance to help pay the costs. Her children pleaded for money to help with the costs and within weeks, they were able to raise $30,000 for their dying mother. Thompson eventually succumbed to her ails and passed in mid-September. Although most people will likely not know who Dorothea Lange is nor will they know the identity of the Migrant Mother, many recognize the mother's face as an emblem of the Great Depression.
afro postage stamps Great Depression photography cancer charity fundraising FSA public domain Dorothea Lange advertisements magazine covers Black Panthers