Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images

Almost everyone knows the enduring photographic portrait that gave a feeling and a face to the Great American Depression. It’s simply titled, “Migrant Mother”, and was an image taken by Dorothea Lange while she was working for the US Government, documenting migrant farm workers. That face now has a name; she was Florence Owens Thompson.

There’s something to be said for the power of anonimity behind a photo like this, since photography can turn any of us into an every-man or every-woman. Yet, putting a name back on a face again returns to us our sense of personalization, of individual experience vs. a collective memory.

Now, CNN has posted an interview with one of the Migrant Mom’s daughters.

As they said back in the day, “Read all about it!“

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Newsworthy, People, Photos. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.