Social Documentary ~ An Example

Dorothea Lange:

Migrant Mother, 1936.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was an American photographer whose work greatly influenced the rise of “social documentary photography”, a genre that sheds a compassionate light on social injustices around the world. She is best known for her work that helped to humanize the plight of the working poor during the Great Depression. In 1936 Lange captured one of her most famous photographs of a destitute migrant in California, mother of seven children. The photograph shows the mother with three of the children huddled around her while she looks on, with worry, into the distance.

Instead of the regular behaviour one expects of children playing, Lange captures them with faces buried and pleading for their mother’s help, and their mother appears despondent and pained. Her eyes don’t even look into the camera, as if she is too tired to care about her own image. The photograph uses different textures, as in the wrinkled skin of the mother, the messy strands of the child’s hair, and the rough fabrics of tattered clothes and tarp, to create contrast and tension. The feeling it exudes is of extreme discomfort, especially as the viewer is forced to focus on the mother’s pained face --the only one directed towards the camera. The traditional composition and natural lighting, as well as her arm and posed fingers, also lead the viewer there. The photographer’s intention is to shed light on a real social issue of concern and have the viewer feel empathy for the plight of this family, and Lange certainly achieves this, which is the role of an effective documentary photographer. This moment can be recreated, if necessary, as it depicts a real situation that is lasting, and as such, the feelings of despair will remain.