The photograph 's title, Migrant Mother identifies the mother, as a migrant worker inferably a farmer outside of her home, as the majority of Americans were as they suffered through the tragedy of the Dust Bowl. Migrant workers traveled from farm to farm picking vegetation and other crops at starvation wages (Boundless). The mother and her children 's location in a tent support the suggestion that they moved frequently and did not possess a home of their own. The mother herself wears unmatched clothing: a plaid shirt underneath a linen coat. The coat is frayed at the sleeves barely extending to her elbows.
A photographic essay is a unique kind of medium. It could consist a set of photographic elements accompanied by notes, comments and captions or could be built up by a whole essay illustrated with photographs. I believe a great photographic essay is made to create a certain feeling in the viewer. With this highly aesthetic medium, the viewer experiences a double effect, because the essay or the comments will drive the feelings, however, the photographs will trigger them. In my research essay, I will introduce Mary Ellen Mark’s Ward 81, a photobook which consist photographs by Mark and the text by Karen Folger Jacobs, with an introduction by Milos Forman.
In the photograph Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange, captured is a woman with a look of worry and fear written all over her dirty, tired face. As her young 3 children huddle around her in search for protection from the horrid outside elements, she looks off into the terror that has quickly become their reality. Although the mother’s thoughts aren’t explicitly written out onto the photo, I can infer by the despair painted upon her face that she knows she cannot provide the protection and food her children need (Lange). While some may believe Lange’s choice not to learn the mother’s story was heartless or inconsiderate, I however agree with Lange’s decision of photographic detachment because the photograph itself communicates to the observer the
As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words. If we truly looked into the story and meaning behind a picture, it could be worth 1,000 more. The Migrant Mother series of pictures are some of the most well-known pictures in American history. But if we take a deeper look at the pictures as Sally Stein did in Passing Likeness, we see that these pictures truly represent something much more than what they were used for and what they’re known for today. This series of photographs was used to represent the struggling working class in America during The Great Depression.
Chicano art possesses a true aesthetic, mirroring a diverse and ever-changing Chicago reality. Today's Chicano art is multipurpose and multifaceted, social and psychological, American in character and universal in spirit. Chicago is considered as people's art movement, outside of museums and hierarchy, so it continues to establish radical or protest art. Since most Chicano artist continue to be rejected for the creative works due to cultural bias therefore, Chicano art does not appear in museums, alternatively motivating the tension between artists and art authority. Chicano art can be expressed as the experiences Chicanos went through by deciphering codes in images, signs, and symbols.
“Passport Photos” by Amitava Kumar is an excerpt combining poetry and photography, and making it into a cultural analysis over immigrant conditions. The author explains complicated situations that immigrants have had to deal with when they step towards the U.S. and one of the main conflicts will be language. This piece has described historical moments, such as mentioning “Alfred Arteaga” and the irony of deportation and printing, cultural critiques, and the reality when it comes to the Hispanic cultures. Kumar reflects his book based on a significant image saying “Caution” in English and “Prohibido” in Spanish. In other words, the sign is telling citizens, “Caution”: be careful by avoiding danger, but then it is telling immigrant’s “Prohibido”,
When I was fourteen-years-old, I saw the Afghan Girl photograph on the cover of the National Geographic. Her eyes are the color of the sea, and the expression on her face is haunting. At the time, I living on Maui, and had been since infancy. Evidently, I did not remember a life before Maui, and it was hard to image a life away from the island. To me, the Afghan Girl photograph represents the life I had on Maui.
The title of the photograph identifies the mother as a migrant worker, and the photograph was taken in 1936, at the time when many migrant farm workers suffered through
The Migrant Mother photograph represented what people were going through day by day and the emotions he or she was forced to overcome. Just the basic picture itself has many meanings and interpretations. Dorothy Lange captured a heart wrenching image of a mother and her children. The contrast and shadows of the photograph give it a dark and grieving tone. The mother is positioned in the center as the focus, however, the children are surrounding her in the background.
The readings “Paradise Redux: Gauguin, Photography, and Fin-de-Siele Tahiti” by Dorothy Kosinski” seeks to address how artist of the 19th Century employed the use of photography as an alternative tool to enhance their creativity. The article also examines the important role that the new medium of photography played in expressing the colonial experience, the progress of European culture, and the start of a cultural movement toward the modern and the primitive. What I think the author would like for us to know is how big of an impact photography made on modern art. How photography could be used to draw a person in by providing a visual account of being in another place creating a sense of nearness or of being real, by giving a more accurate representation
Just as Sontag emphasises in her essay, photography is useful tool that captures the memories, defenses against anxiety, and brings familiarity. In additional, personally I also believe that photos can empower the world by sharing
In the 1960s and 1970s, the environmental movement emerged as a powerful lever of change, challenging the status quo and drawing attention to the consequences of human actions on our planet. Among the many factors that contributed to this movement, the power of photography stood out as a crucial influence that impacted the hearts and minds of the American people. Images like the iconic Earthrise photo and others, such as Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, not only raised awareness, but instigated action, shaped public policy, and ultimately reinstated the people’s relationship with their home planet. As the environmental movement progressed, photography emerged as a powerful tool to catch the public’s attention; images like Earthrise provoked
French theorists Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray have suggested, women must "speak" and "write" their own experiences, but the speaking must also be related to the context (Helland). In her life and work Kahlo espoused the ethic of Mexicanidad (Mexicanness), picturing herself as nourished by her Indian roots despite the fact that she was the daughter of an Hungarian Jew and a Mexican mother of Spanish and Indian descent (Herrera 1990). As she sought her own roots, Kahlo’s personal pain did not eclipse her commitment to Mexico and the Mexican people. She always also voiced concern for her country as it struggled for an independent cultural identity. Therefore, from looking at Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States it provides evidence of an insightful understanding of the fragmented Mexican identity.
Film takes photography to another level. Film, or the cinema “is objectivity in time.” For the first time with film “the image of things is likewise the image of their duration, change mummified as it were”. Bazin argues "only the impassive lens, stripping its object of all those ways of seeing it, those piled- up preconceptions, that spiritual dust and grime with which my eyes have covered it, are able to present it in all its virginal purity to my attention and consequently to my love.
Susan Sontag writes in her book “On Photography” about the Greek philosopher Plato and his relation to the practice of photography as a means for understanding the world and society. Sontag argues that photography is a direct extension of that which it depicts and that it helps convey historical realities and furnish evidence. Harriman and Lucaites, on the other hand, argue that photography indirectly represents that which it depicts and that photographs are often characterized by “promotional zeal rather than syntactical discipline”(138). The photo I selected supports Harriman and Lucaite’s view in favor of photography, which they argue can adequately tap into public memory and convey social knowledge. Photography, as a means of protest, can be used merely as an interpretation of the world and as a vehicle for encouraging positive change.
