Young Mother, a Migrant, California
Dorothea Lange
American, 1895–1965
March 1937
A gelatin silver print by Dorothea Lange that records a tired young migrant mother and her child at a tent’s entrance, made to reveal the human toll of displacement during the Depression.
What first hits you is the mother's haunted, absorbed expression and the grubby child curled at her feet, starkly lit against the canvas tent so that texture and fatigue become almost tactile.
Shot for the Farm Security Administration, this photograph exemplifies how documentary photography made visible widespread suffering in the 1930s and helped shape public sympathy and social reform debates.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
7 5/8 × 8 5/8" (19.4 × 21.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Farm Security Administration
Accession
45.1941
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
