Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) - Edison

Edison, Kern County, California. Children of young migratory parents. They originally lived in Texas. April 11, 1940. Exhibition print from DOROTHEA LANGE - PHOTOGRAPHIEN, Galerie Bilderwelt, Berlin 1998 Famed documentary photographer Dorothea Lange took this photograph while on assignment for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, one of several federal agencies Lange worked for during the 1930s and 1940s. The photographs in this series, taken by Lange and Irving Rusinow, document pre-World War II rural life and social institutions in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The Family: The children shown come from parents who originally migrated to California from Texas to escape the devastating drought of the Dust Bowl era and the economic hardship of the Great Depression. The Living Conditions: According to the original archival records from the National Archives, the family lived in a makeshift auto camp. The day before this recording, the parents traveled 35 miles round trip to pick peas. After five hours of hard work in the fields, both parents earned just $2.25 between them. The motif: The photograph captures the bitter reality and poverty of the migrant workers at the time. You can see two barefoot, dusty children in striped work clothes sitting in front of a wooden hut, while in the background a young woman (presumably the mother) stands at a water tank. Lange's work in Kern County brought the suffering of these forgotten sections of society directly into the consciousness of the American public and had a significant influence on social policy at the time.

Estimate:$336.13

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