The Farm Security Administration- Office of War Information Collection is essentially a collection of photos that is meant to document American life between 1935 and 1944 (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fabout.html). At first, the project was meant to document loans made to farmers by Resettlement Administration as well as the construction of planned suburban communities (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fabout.html). As time passed and the project expanded, the photographs began to record conditions, both urban and rural in nature, throughout the United States as well as mobilization efforts for WWII (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fabout.html).
This project had a significant impact on society because of what it captured. The images of this project show Americans at work, at play, and at home. It highlights rural and small-town life, and emphasizes some of the adverse affects of the Great Depresssion, the Dust Bowl, and increasing farm mechanization. (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html).
The “Migrant Mother” photograph is actually a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html). It has essentially become an icon of the Great Depression. Lange’s work was to document the economic and social trials among the nation’s agricultural workers.
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| Dorothea Lange http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lange_car.jpg |
Thompson later regretted that she allowed Lange to take the photos. While the photos became very popular, they did nothing to help Thompson out of the financial and social distress that she and her children were in (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awpnp6/migrant_mother.html). The photograph kind of showed her as being vulnerable and helpless. Years later, Thompson’s daughter advised that her mother was actually a very strong woman and a leader, which is probably why she disliked the photo- it made her look overly vulnerable and she certainly wasn’t (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awpnp6/migrant_mother.html).
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| Florence Owens Thompson http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b29516/ |
The “Migrant Mother” photographs had relevance back then, and it has relevance now. When Lange approached and spoke to Thompson, Thompson explained her current living situation. She explained that she was basically living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, as well as birds that her children managed to kill. She had sold the tires from her car to buy food (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html). What Thompson was going through back then isn’t too far off from what happens in society today. How often do we walk down the street and see a homeless person asking for change? Times have changed and we consider ourselves more advanced today than people may have been back in 1936. But people still go through the same struggles. People still suffer during economic downturns. People still do whatever they physically can in order to make ends meet. People will gladly give up their possessions just to ensure a meal. The “Migrant Mother” photographs represent the idea that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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| Florence Owens Thompson and her children http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.03054/ |
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