Edwin Gonzalez
Dorothea Lange "Migrant Mother"
Year 1936
I chose this image because the subject matter caught my attention. The photo shows a woman with her children camping outside due to poverty. There is a sublime elements that I feel in the work shown. The children embrace their mother as giving up hope but their mother looks on into the distance, strong and determined to overcome their tough challenges they have faced and will face. Coming from a household where money was an tight, I sort of understand the struggle. I also understand the determination to overcome those obstacles. The Photographer, Dorothea Lange, explains that the shot was not intentional. After her work she stumbled upon the camp where the mother and her children had been. The photo was taken at a camp for seasonal agricultural workers 175 miles north of Los Angeles. Than was shown in the San Francisco newspaper, later the image became a symbol of the Great Depression of American. The government, after seeing the image, rushed a shipment of food to the camps to aid them. Goes to show that photos can make a difference to others and are not simply pretty pictures. I had also learned that some of the best photos are not planned.
Its interesting how the even when the mother and her children are in focus, the main focus of the whole image is the mother because she is only one looking at the direction of the camera. The Dark hair color and the light of the clothes balance each other along with the grey in between. Even when there there is no light source visibly shown, the grey areas in the face really emphasizes the shadows in a soft way. The details are not lost in the grey. The mother and children combination give a Madonna and child feeling to the image.
