For this assignment I chose to describe and critique ‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange. This photo is an example of social documentary photography. There are certain features that make the composition of this photo very appealing to the eyes. Lange’s photo is primarily composed of triangles. The primary triangle is formed by the mother and the two children standing to either side. The top of the triangle begins at the mother’s head, with the sides running downward to the children’s heads, and then finally to the bottom of the frame. The secondary triangle is made by the mother herself. Her propped arm draws the eyes from her head down to the blanket wrapped infant in her lap. This triangular pattern is repeated in the background with the lines
on the tent. An additional aspect that draws a viewer’s eye, is the contrast in the photo. The contrast between the mother’s hair and her face draws the viewer’s eye to hers which is where the greatest amount of emotion is located in the photo. The mother’s brow is wrinkled, expressing the difficulties that she is experiencing. The bleak and discouraged expression on her face revealing her trials. The empty gaze demonstrates that she is unconcerned and apathetic in regards to the photo or the photographer. The only thought that is probably on her mind is to ensure that she and her children receive the food they desperately need to survive. The struggles that she is facing dos not leave her with the capacity to care about the photographer in any way. The lack of energy in her body leaves her unable to focus on anything beyond survival. The way in which the children are positioned personifies the ideal of family. The way in which the mother sits firm, inattentive to her children who are huddled close seeking her strength, depicts the nature of the dependency they have for their mother. In order for a mother to have the strength to support and provide for her children she must first have the strength to support and provide for herself. Dorothea Lange worked for the Farm Security Administration, a program that was administered by FDR in response to the depression. After publication the photo discovered and used as a tool to influence legislation, but eventually became something much larger than a mother’s struggles in a declining economy. It epitomizes the fundamental nature of human strength and tenacity against seemingly insurmountable odds.
The first primary source I chose was written by Margaret Sanger. Margaret was a white woman that came from a working class family. She also had a very strong background in being an advocate for women's rights to birth control. Sanger even lander herself in jail for giving contraceptives to women. Margaret’s background with birth control might have influenced her writings because she had a first hand experience with the subject. This source is informative and the intended audience is for all women. Knowing that the audience is directed toward woman helps me know what perspective to look at her writing. The document is about woman’s freedom over her body. The document talks about how women
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the fight for equal and just treatment for both women and children was one of the most historically prominent movements in America. Courageous women everywhere fought, protested and petitioned with the hope that they would achieve equal rights and better treatment for all, especially children. One of these women is known as Florence Kelley. On July 22, 1905, Kelley made her mark on the nation when she delivered a speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association, raising awareness of the cruel truth of the severity behind child labor through the use of repetition, imagery and oxymorons.
In Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, personal accounts that detail the ins-and-outs of the system of slavery show readers truly how monstrous and oppressive slavery is. Families are torn apart, lives are ruined, and slaves are tortured both physically and mentally. The white slaveholders of the South manipulate and take advantage of their slaves at every possible occasion. Nothing is left untouched by the gnarled claws of slavery: even God and religion become tainted. As Jacobs’ account reveals, whites control the religious institutions of the South, and in doing so, forge religion as a tool used to perpetuate slavery, the very system it ought to condemn. The irony exposed in Jacobs’ writings serves to show
The history of the Lange family spans back almost over 100 years ago with the birth of Grandfather Clark Lange in 1917 who then married Catherine Phelan (b: 1922) in November of 1946, which then began the Lange family lineage. Catherine and Clark gave birth to Walter (b: 1947), Anne (b: 1949), Paul (b: 1951), Mary (b: 1954), Brian (b: 1957), and Peter (b: 1961) into the family. From there, Water and Carol Ann Ronan who married in August of 1970 gave birth to Daniel Lange in 1973, Catherine Lange in 1971, and Courtney Lange in 1971.
In this tempera painting, he used matte opaque water based paints. Tempura paint is a fast drying, opaque matte paint which is inexpensive. Along with his use of tempura paints, he used paper-covered boards to create this beautiful painting. In addition, his use of vibrant colors is what brings this painting alive. In contrast, the “Alabama Plow Girl” is not a painting but an actual photograph taken by Lange. What is interesting is that the photograph is not in full color, but in black in white in contrast to the “Blind Beggars” painting, which has vibrant colors. Both Lange and Lawrence art works reflect on the theme of poverty and unfortunate circumstances of
Fenstad's Mother In this paper I will try to analyze the complex character of Fenstad's Mother and show the changes and the consistencies in her character throughout the story. = == ==
Frida Kahlo and Barbara Kruger’s issues faced throughout their lifetime can be connected to our course. Frida Kahlo’s artwork could be discussed in the Guerrilla Girls book that we have read early in the semester. The Guerrilla Girls portrayed different artists, and their battles faced as women. Frida Kahlo’s art was overshadowed by her artistic husband, Diego Rivera, similarly to many other women artists in the Guerilla Girls. Most women were not credited for their artwork, and were not portrayed in guilds unless they were married or came from a wealthy family. Barbara Kruger’s photography portrayed many feminist prints. Throughout this course, we have discussed the meaning of being a feminist and the issues feminist face
Despite the similarities in the two texts presented by the authors and photographers, their work is presented in two various ways. Agee and Evans project was done after living with three tenant families and Evans photographs are completely separate from Agees text. There are not any captions or names and they do not tell us where the photos are taken or who the people in the pictures are. Lange and Taylor’s project on the other hand is written in a way that helps us read the photographs and it is easier to see the connections between the text and pictures. The captions underneath the photos are based on words formulated by the people in the picture. However, the photos that do not have any people in them still have captions, but in this case we can assume that someone has told the photographer or author what to write for each photo. By this method the true meaning of how the turmoil during this period affected the people in question is more precisely illustrated because it includes the words uttered by the people thems...
The mass media carries with it unparalleled opportunities to impart information, but also opportunities to deceive the public, by misrepresenting an event. While usually thought of as falsifying or stretching facts and figures, manipulation can just as easily be done in the use of photography and images. These manipulations may be even more serious – and subtle – than written manipulations, since they may not be discovered for years, if ever, and can have an indelible and lasting impact on the viewer, as it is often said, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. One of the most significant images of Twentieth Century America was the photograph of a migrant mother holding her child. The photograph was taken during the Great Depression by photographer Dorothea Lange, and has remained an enduring symbol of the hardship and struggle faced by many families during the Depression Era. This image was also an example of the manipulation of photography, however, for it used two major forms of manipulation that remain a problem in journalistic photography.
No other artist has ever made as extended or complex career of presenting herself to the camera as has Cindy Sherman. Yet, while all of her photographs are taken of Cindy Sherman, it is impossible to class call her works self-portraits. She has transformed and staged herself into as unnamed actresses in undefined B movies, make-believe television characters, pretend porn stars, undifferentiated young women in ambivalent emotional states, fashion mannequins, monsters form fairly tales and those which she has created, bodies with deformities, and numbers of grotesqueries. Her work as been praised and embraced by both feminist political groups and apolitical mainstream art. Essentially, Sherman’s photography is part of the culture and investigation of sexual and racial identity within the visual arts since the 1970’s. It has been said that, “The bulk of her work…has been constructed as a theater of femininity as it is formed and informed by mass culture…(her) pictures insist on the aporia of feminine identity tout court, represented in her pictures as a potentially limitless range of masquerades, roles, projections” (Sobieszek 229).
Williams, Bruce. "The Reflection of a Blind Gaze: Maria Luisa Bemberg, Filmmaker." A Woman's Gaze: Latin American Women Artists. Ed. Marjorie Agosin. New York; White Pine Press, 1998. 171-90.
Her first experience in the field of documentary photography spurred from her travels to the Southwest in the 1920s with her husband to photograph Native American life. However, in the 1930s, she shifted her focus to documenting the effects of the Great Depression in San Francisco. Around the same time, Lange met Paul Taylor, a labor economist and university professor. Brought on by an unhappy marriage to Dixon, Lange left in 1935 to travel with Taylor and document the sights and sounds of rural life for the Farm Security Administration. Her work from this era is her best known work, and out of it came the best- known piece of documentary photography in the 20th century: “Migrant Mother.” Five years later, in 1940, she was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, the first woman in history to be granted this. The images she captured after the Pearl Harbor bombing of the internment of Japanese Americans were confiscated by the Army because they revealed the horrifying truth of the internment communities. The Office of War Information hired her in 1945 to document the creation of the United Nations at a conference in San Francisco. In October 1965, at age 70, Lange passed away in San Francisco due to
Through Frida Kahlo’s extensive self-portrait pieces, audiences are able to view her life in an almost biographical way. Each portrait conveys deep emotion and meaning, and carry a story which Kahlo has experienced. Her self-portraits are very personal, and overall show just how tragic her life had been.
Feminist art brings attention to the “gender norms” that allows for domestic violence to be freely executed and reinforced by men. The awareness of a patriarchy and what society defines as “normal standards” allows women to dig deeper into the issue of domestic violence. It shows them that domestic violence is not only a societal problem, but also a political and structural issue that needs to be re-evaluated for equality. It is debatable whether women can ever “escape” the powers of the patriarchy or gender standards. However, feminist artists work to “challenge its limitations, even its very foundations, through their direct expression of subject hood” (Forte 224). Therefore, feminists, such as Barbara Kruger, are able to target specific characteristics of the system and use art to show the implications of a patriarchy and what changes need to be executed in response to its injustices. Through this method, they are able to deconstruct the patriarchal system step by
As a photographer, I am very intrigued by the works of Sally Mann. Sally Mann is mostly known for her controversial, racy images which featured her own children. These photos are seen in Mann’s collection is Immediate Family (1992). I think all her photographs are representational. They either symbolize the destruction or vulnerability of youth, the fascination of the human body, and the fascination of certain landscapes. Immediate Family is filled with images of her children doing grown-up things and showing their journey for autonomy.