Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California

Migrant Mother is a photograph taken in 1936 in Nipomo, California by American photographer Dorothea Lange during her spell at the Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration). Since then, the photograph has become an icon of the Great Depression and because it is in the public domain, it has been reproduced to serve as advertisements and much more. Today, Lange's work is considered to be a part of the classic canon of American art and international photography. The 28.3 by 21.8 cm (11 1/8 by 8 9/16 in) gelatin silver print photograph depicts two children burying their faces in their mother who anxiously gazes off into the distance. A print is housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Description Migrant Mother depicts a mother looking off into the distance with two of her children at her sides and an infant in her lap. Her children's faces are not shown as the children both bury their faces in their mother's shoulders. The black and white photograph print held in the Museum of Modern Art is approximately the same size as a sheet of North American printer paper (11 1/8 by 8 9/16 in) so the woman and her children are smaller than life-sized figures. The mother is the focal point of this photograph as she is the only person in the photograph without an obscured face. 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. By doing so, Lange was able to eliminate any possibility of unwanted effects from exchanges and competing countenances. Thus, the viewer's attention is immediately drawn towards the mother's anxious face rather than her children. Unlike the six (one of which was not included in the original sequence) other photographs Lange took that day, Migrant Mother'''s frame is much more focused on the mother and children as the frame does not allow any room for the background to be shown. In fact, the only parts of the photograph that are shown are above the mother's and children's head. ExecutionMigrant Mother was achieved through a process of deliberate and careful intervention by Lange. Although she considered herself a documentary photographer and stuck to the belief that she should not intervene in the subject of her photography, Lange manipulated the framing and the subjects to finally arrive to her final shot.