Monthly Archives: September 2014

Dorothea Lange and the “Migrant Mother”

Recently PBS portrayed the  life and work of Dorothea Lange.   Known as a vital vibrant woman, Dorothea Lange lives on through her work showing the human condition as it is.

Migrant mother from wikipedia SEP 1, 2014 Image by Dorothea Lange in 1936, this phtotgraph was downloaded from Wikipedia on September 1, 2014.  This woman kept her identity secret for the rest of her Dorothea Lange’s life.   The woman did not want to embarrass her children by publicizing her name.   Ben Phelan posted the story of the woman who revealed her identity  as Florence Thompson, late in life, at which time she made the following comment.

DSC04214  The Migrant Mother’s retrospective comment, made close to 40 years later.  Interestingly,  this much distributed photograph became part of the lore of this country, being much copied.  It was taken in the tradition of Dorothea Lange’s work, to include a larger story with the subjects of every photograph.  However, it seems 100 percent certain that Dorothea Lange did not know at the time that this work was going to become perhaps the most iconic image of her career.