….At the camp, the Hoboken, N.J.–born Lange spotted Frances Owens
Thompson and knew she was in the right place. “I saw and approached the hungry
and desperate mother in the sparse lean-to tent, as if drawn by a magnet,”
Lange later wrote. The farm’s crop had frozen, and there was no work for the
homeless pickers, so the 32-year-old Thompson sold the tires from her car to
buy food, which was supplemented with birds killed by the children. Lange, who
believed that one could understand others through close study, tightly framed
the children and the mother, whose eyes, worn from worry and resignation, look
past the camera. Lange took six photos with her 4x5 Graflex camera, later
writing, “I knew I had recorded the essence of my assignment.” Afterward Lange
informed the authorities of the plight of those at the encampment, and they
sent 20,000 pounds of food. Of the 160,000 images taken by Lange and other
photographers for the Resettlement Administration, Migrant Mother has become
the most iconic picture of the Depression. Through an intimate portrait of the
toll being exacted across the land, Lange gave a face to a suffering nation.
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