“a large- scale, federally funded propaganda machine”

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was Initially created as the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty.

When Dorothea Lange took the photographs of Migrant Mother she was working for a FSA on a  project to capture photographs of the effects of the Great Depression. Roy Stryker was the director of this project. He lay down specifics of religion, social environments and activities he wanted to be captured when making assignments. He further indicated what type of expression he wanted to be captured which now is what we think is behind the photograph.

Propaganda is the formation, of photographs or other sources of information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. Some people argue that the photograph of Migrant Mother was used as propaganda to raise awareness of the 1930’s in a specific point of view, that is of the depression and poverty. The photograph is of a mother and her children which everyone can relate to and creates a lot of empathy from the viewers. The photos were also used to raise money, however none of that money was given to Migrant Mother herself, however some money was raised and given to the people on the crop farm where the photograph was originally taken. The photographs were then appropriated on to many things such as stamps and it soon became the most reproduced photograph in the history of photography.

Social reform is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements.  A Danish migrant published a photo book called ‘ How The Other Half Lives’  which was about the slums of Manhattan. This then triggered photographers such as Lewis Hine and Dorothea Lange to document through photographs industrialization of American Working class families. This brought to the attention the need housing and labor reforms. This photographs then led to what we know now as photojournalism and documentary photography which is used to tell stories, raise awareness and document events.

” In an era of face recognition software and data sharing between governments and corporations , the only way to protect your identity, and hence your privacy, may be to destroy all pictures of yourself” – Paul Wombell

Defacing portraits in contemporary photography

The human brain is not too good at remembering faces, where as a computer helped by photography can store all data and make links between different locations and time zones. With a set of numbers a face can be recognized. Facebook is taking this project further, with a face recognition software called DeepFace which is almost as accurate as the human brain when it comes to recognizing faces. In the UK a system run by the government communication head quarters can access photographs on social media sites, emails and texts for facial recognition purposes.

Reasons why you might want to hide your face?

• Modesty
• Criminality
• Protection
• To Evade security cameras
• When taking part in a public demonstration
• Privacy
• Combat surveillance

Does face recognition come with power?

If personal photographs on social media and surveillance cameras are accessible not only to your friends and family but also to the government and operations. Can power be defined by how much data can be traced through facial recognition. More recently we have seen an example of this when technology was used to recognize the thousands of refugees travelling from the Middle East to Europe.

In my personal study I have chosen to obscure my mums face with objects and make her identity unknown until the end of the project.  I chose to this because I think it links in with her job title, as a domestic I think my mum’s work is in the background and not taken much notice of. I represented this in my photographs by ‘hiding’ her face with an object. When I first started photographing I did this unconsciously, it was only when I looked back at the photographs that I realized and carried on with this idea.

Possible facts to use in personal study essay:

• Statistically, the Portuguese are the 3^rd most hard working nation on average working nine hours per day.
• A study was carried out by the University of Southampton showed that the Portuguese immigrants in Jersey who  first began as farm workers are more able to become successful business-owners without learning very much of the language.
• According to the States statistics unit there were 5,500 people in Jersey last year who were either born in Portugal or Madeira.
• On average one Portuguese worker works about 1,852 hours per year.
• Portugal was also among the five biggest foreign working communities in Britain.

Photography: A Critical Introduction Third Edition Edited by Liz Wells 

In 1939 a Documentary photographer called Dorothea Lange, was working on a government run project called Farm Security Administration.  Dorothea had stopped on the road to investigate a group of people who were employed to pick peas. Within less than 15 minutes she had photographs of the ‘migrant mother’ and her children. This photograph went on to become the most reproduced photograph in history, it was reproduced on stamps to represent the ear of 1930’s and used for cartoons.

One of the main principles of this photograph was that it should remain untouched free of photo shop even any minor changes so that the photograph could maintain it’s accuracy and genuineness.

What the photograph shows/ represents?

• Mother and child – maternal symbolism
• Poverty during the depression
• Lack of presence in the mothers expression
• Absence of the farther
• The human condition at the time
• Social and historical evidence
• Resistance against the depression
• Gender roles – femininity

Dorothea Lange – The Assignment I Will Never Forget  

Essay to go with the photograph of Migrant Mother

“I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, she was thirty-two. “She and her children had been living on frozen vegetables from the field and wild birds the children caught. The pea crop had frozen; there was no work. Yet they could not move on, for she had just sold the tires from the car to buy food. There she sat in that lean in tent with her children huddled around her, seemed to know that my pictures might help her, so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.”

Ways in which the photograph can be analysed:

• Relation to politics and ideology
• Process and technique
• Class, race and gender
• Psychoanalysis
• Aesthetics and traditions in art
• Context
• Essay to go with it

In 1978,  they were able to track Migrant Mother, they found her living in a trailer in Modesto California, however they said that she was an ordinary dull woman who was no longer able to be the icon of the depression.  In an interview with ‘Migrant Mother’ Florence Thompson held by the United Press 50 years after the photographs were taken Florence said that she was proud to be the subject of the photography however she didn’t make any money out of it and so it had done her no good.

“FLORENCE LEONA THOMPSON Migrant Mother – A Legend of the Strength of American Motherhood.”^[20]

Dorothea Lange is an American documentary photographer and photo journalist born in New Jersey, she was the second generation of German Immigrants. She is best known for her photographs during the depression era in America during 1920’s and 1930’s , she photographed the consequences of this great depression. Dorothea  was educated in photography at Columbia University in New York City.

Florence Ownes Thompson born on September 1st 1903 born in Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. Florence is most well know for the iconic photograph taken by Dorothea Lange of her and her children. The photograph was taken on a camping site where they had set up temporarily while her husband had gone to get the car radiator repaired . Dorothea Lange drove past the camp site and decided to take photograph of Florence and her family , she took 6 photographs in the space of 10 minutes.  This encounter happened differently according to Dorothea, Dorothea said that she  did not ask Florence’s name or her history. Florence told her, her age which was 32 at the time. Florence had also said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food.

According to Florence,  Lange promised the photos would never be published, but Lange sent them to the San Francisco News as well as to the Resettlement Administration in Washington, D.C. This picture had an immediate influence of the public along with the news  that 2,500 to 3,500 migrant workers were starving in Nipomo, California.  Within a few days, the pea-picker camp where Florence was camping  received 20,000 pounds of food from the government. However Florence and her family had moved on by the time the food arrived at the camp and were working near Watsonville, California. The photograph because a type of symbolism to represent what was happening in America at the time.

I choose to research Dorothea Lange because the work she produced has some links with the work I am doing for my personal study. Both my work and Dorothea’s are of the life of migrant mothers. I am photographing my mum her working environment and as her role as a mother in a documentary style. I am going to use Dorothea’s work in my essay and compare the links between mine and her work.

http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/3373 – her work