Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California. March 1936.
Dorothea Lange took one of the most iconic portraits of all time with ‘Migrant Mother’. She took an unorthodox approach to this portrait, as she chose to include the context of the two children in the frame with the mother. Usually, when a portrait is taken, it is either taken in a studio or taken at a wide aperture for the short depth of field. However, Lange ignored these standards, as she shot a tighter aperture (likely f/5.6 or f/8) to include the context of the children & the environment around her. In edition, she captured the raw emotion & stress on the mother’s face, & I feel as if this really speaks to the audience when viewing the photograph – it adds emotion to the whole frame & moves the viewer as they observe it. Overall, I believe the context & emotion provided in this photograph makes it a much more visually compelling portrait than most.