What stands out about Dorothea Lange’s portraits, and in this photo in particular, is how she crops her subjects. Unlike more traditional portraits, Lange gets really close to her subjects, to the point where we can see every little detail on their faces. This image is more successful in that way, in my opinion, because the viewer is forces to look at the emotion in the subject’s face. Details like the subject’s weathered and wrinkled face, as well as their expression may be more easily overlooked if the image had not been cropped so close.