Personal Study Book Design

One of the main books I have used as inspiration for my book design is Martin Usborne’s book ‘I’ve Lived In East London For 86 1/2 Years’. This photo book is about an old man who is living in East London and Martin Usborne, the photographer is photographing him in his everyday life.

I really like how each photo is presented alongside a couple of sentences which are Joseph’s words. These words show Joseph’s view on a topic. I think it makes the book have more character as you are able to read his thoughts and different views on modern life. 

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In my photo book, which has a similar concept to Martin Usborne’s book I will be taking extracts of my grandparents words. I will be taking these extracts from the interviews that I conducted with them a couple of months ago. The main headings/ topic heading will be; Music, Family, Jersey, Wales and Faith.

For the cover of my photo book, I am going to cover it with a patterned material, rather than a photograph.  An example of this is Julian Germain’s photo book ‘For Every Minuet You Are Angry You Loose Sixty Seconds Of Happiness’. This cover is very colorful and eye catching. The type of pattern gives an essence of what the theme of the book is going to be.

This photo book has presented its pictures with white boarders around the pictures rather than full bled. I do like the white space around the photographs as I think it gives the book a clean cut look. Germain has also included random plain white pages, which breaks the book up nicely.

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In this book, Germain presents some archive photos:

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Although it is effective I not like the style he has presented these photographs. I don’t like how he has scanned the whole photo album, however I do like the positioning of the archive photo’s in the book. Germain has positioned them all together, in the middle of the book.  I am still yet to decide how I would like to preset my archive photographs in my book. Either have them all together in a cluster, in the middle of the book.  Or have them spread evenly throughout the book.

I am choosing to title my photo book ‘The Heavens’ because I think it has a strong sound to it, and makes the book clear what is going to be about.

  • Square shaped book
  • white board around the photos
  • material front cover
  • extracted quotes alongside photos
  • random white blank pages
  • archive photographs in the middle of the book
  • title ‘The Heavens’

How does Phillip Ebeling and Pieter Hugo, express the notion of family history and relationships in their work

How does Phillip Ebeling and Pieter Hugo, express the notion of family history and relationships in their work?

Phillip Ebeling and Pieter Hugo are both photographers with similar stances to the objective of home. Ebeling explores the concept of past and the desire for trying to encourage his audience not to forget their own past as it is a gift inherited from generations. Pieter Hugo’s exhibition is a kind of personal psychological study of his conflicted homeland. Both portray a different perspective of home but in a way everyone can relate to.  My response reflects to the concept of home and my personal experiences growing up in Government house, focusing on the work my dad does as the Butler for Jersey’s Lieutenant governor. My interpretation is a personal reflect and an insight into the life of the current Governor

Pieter Hugo’s book ‘Kin’ is a photo representation of what his childhood was like and the types of people surrounding him. He describes it as “an engagement with the failure of the South African colonial experiment and my sense of being colonial driftwood”. As a white South African photographer, Hugo is perfectly aware of the problems of representation that surround his work, which merges documentary, portraiture, still life and landscape. “South Africa is such a fractured, schizophrenic, wounded and problematic place,” His work brings together six years of work and marks a move towards a more personalized, introspective approach. “How does one live in this society?” he asks. “How does one take responsibility for history, and to what extent does one have to? How do you raise a family in such a conflicted society? Before getting married and having children, these questions did not trouble me. Now they are more confusing.” Hugo says his work attempts to look at what he calls “conflicting personal and collective narrative. His imagery ranges from portraits of his family and friends and also with images of homeless people on the streets that he meets all over South Africa. A full-length portrait of his pregnant wife hangs alongside two powerful head-and-shoulder portraits of outsiders: a man with a drooping eye and unreadable stare; another man with a defiant air and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Throughout, there are equally dramatic juxtapositions, such as a self-portrait of Hugo cradling his new-born daughter who shares a room with a photo of the first gay couple to get married in a traditional African wedding ceremony. There are photographs of the women who worked for his parents and helped raise Pieter as a child, as well as an inspiring group portrait of young men who had just completed their initiation into manhood.  Historically, Pieter became a photographer because of slight frustration he had when it came to his homeland. As he is a white South-African, people don’t view him as an African when at heart he is. This fuelled his temptation to dig deeper into the heart of Africa, and the traditions it upholds. Hugo doesn’t truly feel part of Africa, even though he knows it throughout, “I’ve travelled through Africa, I know it, but at the same time I’m not really part of it… I can’t claim to have an authentic voice, but I can claim to have an honest one.” Pieter alters through private and public spaces, which particular emphasis on the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. Pieter Hugo’s book ‘Kin’ is his efforts in trying to locate himself and his family in a country with a troubled history and an uncertain future, which is truly inspiring. What I found that stood out when I was viewing his book, was that I didn’t need to read the context to understand what he was trying to portray in his images; they spoke for themselves.

Exploring through Phillip Ebeling’s book ‘Land without Past’, I instantly felt the connection that he was trying to portray through to his audience. His interpretation is channelled from the desire to make things news as he understood the common feelings that people never liked to keep the old things. People seemed to be dipping further into deleting memories of their past and focusing on the new current situation they are living in. Ebeling’s main intention was to in fact, reconnect with his family and friends back in his homeland of Germany.  He was a London-based photographer and wanted to expand his detail of work to something he could easily connect with. He describes his return back home like he had never left, “Despite my long absence from the village, it still occupies a central part of my identity,” meaning, you are who you are from where you come from and how you’re brought up.  Ebeling’s writes, “It has indelibly shaped my sense of the world, who I am and how I function… I still call this patch of earth home and I doubt that will ever change.” Ebeling’s focus within his book is to strive to reconnect with your past, as well as exploring the notion of home, expressing both his personal memory and identity. Ebeling’s photography relates to my personal study by incorporating archival images from family’s photo albums. Phillip cleverly constructs a picture of both a past he remembers and one he can only reach through photographs. My favourite photograph from Phillip Ebeling’s book is the one in his attic with his train track still set up with other toys around it. The space is so small but the context behind it is so much more powerful. This photo really stood out for me, mainly due to the contrasting colours but also the meaning behind it, visually seeing his historical childhood was pleasing to see. I think this particular photographer initiates an emotional impact on the audience, as when referring to someone’s past and their homeland, stories and memories start to reappear, which is either a positive or negative thing. When returning home, Ebeling quoted in his book, “I now appreciate that the history of my country is in constant flux.” As a population, we all have our own unique pasts that has enabled us to grow as individuals, seek new challenges and develop new skills. This unique aspect to life is important to interrupt through art and photography, whilst it creates a book or photographs of memories, it allows the people surrounding you, know where you came from and how you have developed as a person from childhood to the present time.

As an amateur photographer, it is important for me to express details about my life to almost create a biography through photographs. I chose to use my dad for my project as his job has impacted my life since day 1. My dad is the Butler for the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey and has enabled me to have an insight into the life of royalty. My dad’s responsibilities are; ensuring the house events run smoothly, he also manages the house staff and liaises with his Excellency and Lady Mc Cole for all their requirements. I have lived in the grounds of Government House all my life and have truly honoured living here. Our tight community has really impacted my life and the way I am, as I also work as a waitress for Government House functions, I have been taught the type of service required for the Governor and his guests by my Dad himself. It was an honour to follow the footsteps of my dad and what he does at work and for the Governor to allow me take photographs of him off duty was a privilege in itself. To me, family is the most important aspect in life, it’s the root to our personality.  Family is the single most important influence in a child’s life. From your first moments of life, you depend on parents and family to protect and provide for your needs. They form your first relationships with other people and are your role models throughout life. Researching into the way different photographs express the notion of home was truly inspiring and made me want to produce something that shows how my life has been impacted through my dad’s job.

What I am Doing

Over the past couple of weeks I have been experimenting with different photo shoots and styles that I want to create. I originally had the idea of creating a fashion magazine, taking inspiration from Claude Cahun and dressing up as both the male and female models. This worked out well at the time and I think that the experiment was successful but I think that something was missing. All of the previous work that I have created in the lead up to my final idea has actually helped me a lot and is still very relevant to how I am going to go about my final piece. The work done has taught me what to do and what not to do. What I now know will work and what won’t. The experimentation has really helped me get my head around a final project. So for my final project I am sticking to creating a short film of my mum which is very nearly finished. I took inspiration from this short film and the interview that I did with my mum and have also made some images of myself mimicking my mother’s role. I think that this is working out well and will be the best final project for me to create. For my staged shoot I took much of my inspiration from Cindy Sherman and her Untitled Film Stills. On the photo book aspect of this I have been looking at past students work and think that possibly a small handmade book will be the most effective as I don’t think that I would have enough photographs to make an entire photo book. This gives me room to be more creative and to experiment a bit more, I want my images to almost be like film stills and to look different. I think that this will complement my short film nicely and they will work well together. Another reason that I would want to create my own book is actually because I came up with the idea of creating a folder type thing to put it in. I want to get a tea towel, sew around the edges, leaving a hole in the top obviously, and have my book live inside it. I think that this will be really interesting and give my spectator more to look at and it will just be another layer into the mix as well as photographs and film. I also think that this will add to the whole idea of stereotypes in my work as I myself will be sewing the fabric and putting it all together which is what women are actually expected to do. I think that this will work out well and showcase another element of female stereotypes in my work. The book that I want to create will be quite small and I am considering making the images square to mimic an old film camera, bringing it back to the traditional roles that were always expected of women and still are today. This will be an interesting experiment and I think that it could work out really well.

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Short Film | Review

My short film is an audio interview with my mum and visuals that correspond to what she is saying. This has worked out really well and given me inspiration for my essay as well as what photographs to produce. I found the film really fun to create as I got to make videos instead of just photographs and it was interesting to actually get to know my mum a little bit more and about her upbringing and her own life. I found the whole experience of making this short film exciting as it is something new and something that I was interested in. If it was on any thing other than the topic of feminism or something that I am passionate about I don’t think that I would have enjoyed it as much and I wouldn’t have been able to create the work I have. This short film has been a really great gateway towards figuring out what kind of photo book I want to create and how I should go about creating it.

Photo Book | Idea

For a while now I’ve had the idea of making a folder/blanket for my photo book. I’ve known what I want the outside of my photo book to look like more than what I want the actual photo book to look like itself. I want to sew around a tea towel and have my book live inside this tea towel, this will just add yet another layer to my entire project and I think that it will work really well. I have recently come up with the idea of completely making a photo book on my own as a way of showing how women seem to do everything, even make their own photo book. This will be an added element showing the stereotypes that women are faced with as well. I think that this will be a nice added touch to my project and will work out really well. I want a small photo book as I don’t think that I will have enough images to make an entire one and it will just look better if I create it myself and make it look more like stills from a film as if it is unreal or something that shouldn’t be real. I might make my book look like one that waiters/waitresses have where they take your order. This will also add to the detail that women are seen as slaves in their own homes and the unfair expectations opposed on them. This will be interesting to create but I think that I will be able to manage it. If I don’t manage to make my own book by hand I want to create a small book on blurb but still have it living inside of a tea towel.

photo book idea

Half term

What I have left to do?

  • 2 photo shoots
  • Portrait of my mum
  • Archive material
  • Edit new photographs
  • Finish essay
  • Start photo book

Over this half term I plan to do my final two photo shoots of my mum. I am going to revisit one of the houses that she works at because I think the quality of some of the photographs can be improved and so that I can build upon the photos I already have. I am also going to continue taking photographs of my mum at home before and after work continuing the theme of a ‘hidden identity’  . After I have done this I should have enough photographs to choose from for my photo book.  Although I already have some archival material I need to scan them so I have a digital copy ready to use. Finally, I am also going to try and start putting my photo book together on blurb by downloading the software and creating an account, so I can do this from home.

 

Handmade Book

Overview

In this blog post I will explore the reasons why I am going to make a hand-made book. I will also begin to explore these reasons in further detail, looking at the positives as well as the negatives of doing so, in the process tackling the issues facing me so I produce work of good quality, similar to that if I made a successful online photo-book.

Despite some draw-backs which I will explore later on this blog-post, I have decided to go ahead with my idea to make an old-fashioned styled photo-album.

From the archives I looked at the work of photographer Henry Thomas who made a series of scrap-book styled albums of his daughter from the period of 1930-50. This research fueled my ambition to evoke a similar style of collecting and presenting images, moving away the general idea of most of the class, which is to make an on-line photo-book using ‘Blurb’

I have begun the process of looking into either buying and designing my own photo-book. Making my own photo-book instead of using Blurb is an idea I am determined to go forward with.

However before I do though I need to think carefully beforehand; there are certain risks involved with making a homemade book and many considerations need to be looked into beforehand. In my previous blog post I looked at the positives of making a photo-book; essentially the aspirations of how I want my own work to turn out like. But, if I am going to make a success of this idea, I will need to accept and  look into some of the drawbacks of this type of style; which I need to be aware of in order to avoid making similar mistakes. Here is a summary of the positives and negatives of making a hand-made photo-book.

 

Positives

  • More personal – writing my own personal notes.
  • Retro feel/style.
  • Bit different; chance to express my work in a different direction and challenge myself more – I have already made an online photo-book.
  • Allows me to add stuff other than photos; archival images, letters, documents etc.
  • Alot cheaper: £20-£30 for everyhting I need oppose to £5-60
  • Fun to make and not restricted to a computer.
  • Resonates that of a family album.
  • Links to the work I am doing at the archives.

 

Negatives

  • Can potentially become a scrap-book; may look tacky and unprofessional.
  • Photos printed off could be of bad quality.
  • Missing out on the chance to produce a really good quality online photo-book
  • Takes a lot of time to make – need to spend time to do it properly
  • Little room for mistakes; if not carefully planned will look flawed

 

How I will respond to these Negative Points

  1. Issue of scrap-book

Solution

  • Look to make work more in the style of a photo-album
  • Research contemporary professional photographers who have successfully made a hand-made book in a way which looks good

2.   Bad Quality Images

Solution

  • One advantage of handmade book is their is leeway for quality; is able to look a bit rustic/vernacular
  • Printing my photos off at the Société Jersiaise
    photographic archives: can chose and decide the right type of photo paper I want

3. Compensating for online style design

Solution

  • Don’t ignore influences I can take from photo-books; ways of displaying a narrative
  • Can compromise to some degree; will have a clearer idea once I have looked into everything more
  • My attitude is that measuring success of art is subjective and there is no right or wrong; yes an on-line photo-book would look cool, but what is there to suggest that making a hand-made book wouldn’t look equally as good?

4. Taking a lot of time to make

Solution

  • Plan carefully so I don’t run out of time.
  • Stay on task and don’t procrastinate.
  • Quality over quantity.

5. Little room for mistakes

Solution 

  • Embrace the leeway which I have with my decision to evoke a semi-vernacular style.
  • Take risks and be creative: this is the whole point as to why I am making a photo-book in this style.
  • Do it properly; buy a proper photo-album beforehand with good quality pages – look at Martin Parr’s ‘Life a Beach’. Change, adapted front cover if needed to make it more personal
  • Research a reasonable amount

Conclusion

I enjoyed making a photo-book last year for my AS photography project. Nevertheless there was certain difficulties I faced during this process and found it to some extent, quite restrictive. Also, doing the photo-story design on Photoshop was a challenge I found difficult. I recognize that online/computer design is definitely one of my weakness. As I made a photo-book last year to measured success, I believe I don’t have anything to proof in terms of making a online book and so can use this time instead to try something a bit different.

In many ways this is a huge re-think of the direction of my project. My research and concept will not change however, but just I will explore a few more ideas and style to compliment to work of Toropstov, Sancari and Germain, of which my study is more or less  influenced by.

I will begin to research other photographers who have successfully made a hand-made book, which includes British Photographer Martin Parr in his photo book ‘Life’s A Beach’, of which I will make another blog post.

I will construct a careful plan of how to go about my photo-book in a manner which allows room for change whilst at the same time is a realistic plan for the remaining time I have.

Although I know it wont be easy I am convinced if I make and construct a home-made photo-book that I will be able to produce a very successful response to this project. I will successfully find a balance between creating something which is both homemade but professional looking at the same. I don’t want to as Mr Toft has fairly pointed out, make my book look tacky and of low quality because if I do so, the good progress I have made in my project so far will essentially be lost. I will work hard and research well however to ensure that this is not the case.

I am aware that this will be challenging and a  risk. Nevertheless I want to make use of the month or so I have to complete this project in a productive way which pushes me out of my comfort zone and stretches my understanding.

I am open to a degree of compromise on this idea, which I will explore in the next few blog post this concept of photo-book design has inspired me to produce.

 

 

Plan for Making a Photo-book

This is my step by step plan for making and constructing my handmade photo-book.

Before Half – Term

Develop and research ideas – DONE

Blog Post on Martin Parr – DONE

Choose and buy photo-book in town – DONE

Specification of my ideas and what I want to – DONE

Blog Post on importance of photo-book presentation

Decide photos I want to print off for photo-book

Half Term

Buy photo-corners Finish Essay + publish all stuff on blog post

Research front cover design ideas – maybe write a blog post on these findings?

Get other work done and free up time to work on photo-book for next couple of weeks

After Half-Term

Monday 22nd = Go through layout with Mr Toft Put photos in book presentation order Put photos in right resolution: 300 Resolution +Tiff Format

Print off A2 contact sheet on archive printer first week back: may have to make a couple of trips

Cut out images Put into photo-frames

Annotations and anything extra I need Print out essay in type-writer format

Archives – Week 3

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Objective

This week I have begun the process of writing my essay. This meant that Gareth was able to see the work I have done and make suggestions for me to improve, as well as give me ideas in which to take my project.

I began this session by talking to Gareth about where I want to take my project and what I am trying to learn. I therefore mentioned how I want it to be a personal journey in which I try to document  my Grandfather, through the photographic style of Julian Germain in ‘For , but  in style similar to that of how Yury Toropstov has gone about his work in ‘Deleted Scene’. I then showed Gareth the work I have done so far on my essay, through which he marked and gave me some feedback on. I found this feedback to be useful and it gave me some good ideas about how to write my last paragraph of the essay, which I am struggling for ideas on.

What interested Gareth in particular was the concept that I was creating a narrative based around a person who is not alive and who I therefore cannot photograph. Gareth defined this concept as an ‘interpretation’ – photographing things related to the subject but not the subject directly.

Gareth came up with an idea: we went down to the archive room where we collected a series of photo scrap-books made by  photographer George Adolphus Thomas (born 1900) – 10 in total over the course of 30 years. Many of these photographs included and were focused around Thomas’ young daughter: Pamela Georgina Thomas (born 1929). Pamela was photographed constantly and fanatically by her father, which has resulted in a extensive body of work documenting and recording her upbringing

My challenge was to look at these photographs, make a few notes, and draw a series of conclusions based on findings – as well as attempt to put these photographs in chronological order. In particular, Gareth wanted me to consider the idea that because Pamela was photographed an extensive amount; in different places, points of times and context, that a clear narrative of her can therefore be told through the images. In contrast, Gareth got be to consider the contrast this has with my own project, as I am attempting to create a story about someone who is no longer alive.

Response

The task was relativity easy to complete, I had to look in all the books and then date them in chronological order. I more or less completed this task however it was at times hard to decide which ones to put in order because of the timeline of the album sometimes overlapped. It was interesting to see to variety of images which had been taken, over such a long period of time.

Whilst I was doing this task I became more interested in the actual book, in particular the hand-made, scrapbook appearance to them. There was something that really appealed to me about this presentation, it was simple but personal. The photos were arranged in this scrap-book manner and Thomas included little personal notes, presumably for this own benefit of remembering when pictures were taken and what happened. I found doing so gave the book a very unique feel to it, it could never be re-produced as the photographer had put their own stamp on it. There was something almost satirical about some of the notes, it added comical elements to the narrative, in many ways glimpse of the photographer’s personality embedding itself into the narrative.The way Thomas had arranged the photographs was quite simple; he simply made little cut outs and placed the developed images in the individual pockets – sometimes one large photo taking up an entire page and sometimes up to 6 photos on a page. This order was random and spontaneous.

The concept of the book was very clever. Thomas had carefully arranged the photos in a roughly chronological order. The choice of images were definitely not random because the photos all displayed a certain narrative by which different images linked to the next. Thomas did not simply just photograph his daughter; he did it in a considered manner, resulting in a variety of images of her in different situations.

At the end of session I had a talk with Gareth about what I had learned. I spoke about how it inspired my personal study – mentioned in the next section – and my thoughts of the books in general. We got onto the discussion of how image presentation very much affects how the viewer interprets and meanings behind photographs. We also spoke about the contrasts between my own work and that of George Thomas. We distinguished the concept that although me and this photographer have based our work of the same  concept, to paint a visual picture of a particular subject, we are however doing so in very different manners; Thomas used the subject directly to tell a story, whereas I am painting a story of a subject who is not around to be photographed. Therefore we determined that my photo-book could be a response to Thomas’ work, however done in a different way.

“Your work could be edition four?” – Gareth Syvret

How has this session helped my Personal Study?

Doing this task gave me a an idea for my own Personal Study; to make a handmade photo-book made of a simple scrap-book I will buy. I will then create a narrative by printing the photos off of sticking them into the book.

This session has therefore in my view, been very useful because it has given a clearer idea about how to present my photo-book. It has also given me a better idea about how to go about the last paragraph, due to both to the useful essay feedback Gareth has given me as well as the extra context I have gain about the photographer, George Thomas, whom is another inspiration I can link to my own writing and to the basis of my project in general.

All of three sessions I have done so far have all been useful in different ways. This week has been the most useful in terms of providing me with creative ideas.

My Photo-book Design Idea

The main advantage of me doing this is that I will able to include this in the book other than the actual photos, such as real documents and hand-written notes.

My main intention of doing so is to make a book which is personal and uniquely my own. Through this I mean I will make a book which only can be made once and never duplicated, because the photos will be original prints and I will include authentic documents and my own hand-written notes. Unlike making an on-line book, which can be easily re-ordered and duplicated, my book will instead be a one off design; customised and personalised to my particular desire, not limited by the restrictions of a web design. I also think it will be a fun and creative task to complete and I think it is an idea which is a bit different. I like the idea of including stuff other than photos, which means I can make more of a pop-up style book, a bit more creative than simply just photos; therefore more personal and subjective.

My essay, instead of being included on the page will be printed of separately on a piece of paper and either stapled in the book or placed in an attached envelope. I think that this will be a good idea because it will mean will essay can be read in an easier manner, as the paper can be separated from the book and therefore handled easier. I will also be a fun and creative way to play on the pop-up idea, and the font can be a type-writer font, again a response to the idea that the book is a retro design.

For extra inspiration I have looked at an old book I had from about 8 years ago. It is called ‘Eygptology’ and was a book with interactive pop-up features. This book was a history book and made use of similar archival documents that I want to use in my own book, such as letters and old photographs.

I also looked at a YouTube video of a hand-made book,  made by a photographer named Greg A. Chiana, as well as a prehaps more well known handmade photo-book, made by Martin Parr entitled ‘Life’s a Beach’

 

 

2nd essay draft

How does my mum’s role as breadwinner abdicate from her culture?

“A Legend of the Strength of… Motherhood.” [20]

Motherhood is the state or experience of having and raising a child.

In this essay, the first thing I am going to do is analyse and compare the links between my personal study outcomes and Dorothea Lange’s Iconic ‘Migrant Mother’ photographs. I have chosen to analyse the photograph of ‘Migrant Mother’ In particular because it is such a well-known photograph with a powerful context behind it which is very interesting to me. Furthermore I have found that it relates to my personal study. Secondly, I am going to explore my mum’s work ethic, female traditional roles and how my mums’ role as a breadwinner of my family abdicates from her culture. My mum was born in Madeira which means that the female exceptions of her are very different to the role that she ‘plays’ now.  To explore this concept I have been photographing my mum in her working environment over a period of months. I am also going to include my personal archive photographs to compare my mum’s role before and now.

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange

‘Humanity is a hypothesis that has run its course’ ( Aragon 2002:21) – Dorothea Lange: The Heart and Mind of a Photographer

In 1939 during the Great Depression Dorothea Lange was working on a project for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which was created to help combat American poverty. The aim of this project was to capture the effect that the Great Depression had on people. According to Dorothea Lange, this photograph was taken when she was driving past a camp site and she then stopped and approached ‘Migrant Mother’ within 10-15 minutes she had taken 6 different exposures. Dorothea Lange said that ‘Migrant Mother’ had been living off frozen vegetables from the field and wild birds the children caught and they could not move on, because her husband had just sold the tires from their car to buy food. On the other hand Florence Owens Thompson who is ‘Migrant Mother’ herself says that the encounter happened differently. She said that 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. Lange had also promised that the photographs would not be published, however she sent it to San Francisco News as well as to the Resettlement Administration in Washington, D.C. Since then the photograph has become an Icon and a representation of the Great Depression.

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 from a specific point of view, which is the depression and poverty. The photograph is of a mother and her children which are subjects that everyone can relate too and therefore this creates a lot of empathy from the viewers. The photographs were also used to raise money, however none of that money was given to Migrant Mother herself, and however some of the money that was raised was 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 cartoons; so much so it soon became the most reproduced photograph in the history of photography.

ADD ANALYSIS PARAGRAPH