Migrant Mother “Dorothea Lange was one of the best of the American photographers who used their art to document, and ultimately to alleviate, the human suffering caused by the Great Depression of the 1930s. As she viewed it, photography was not an end in itself, but a means of exploring the world so as to improve it.” Dorothea Lange captured the hard times of one of these families during the struggle of the Great Depression in her photograph Migrant Mother. The photograph shows a family in poverty, but it also shows the determination of a mother to do her best to care for her children and to keep fighting through the difficult times. The title of the photograph depicts the woman as a migrant worker. The photograph was taken in 1936 during the time when many migrant farm workers suffered through the disaster of the Dust Bowl. The photograph is in black and white but there is a colored version as well. The black and white version shows so much more emotion. There is so much more focus on shadow and light instead of the distraction of all the different colors. The light source seems to be coming from in front of the mother. Her face is the lightest which makes her the first thing we see when looking at this image. The family's clothing helps show their level of income during this time. The mother wears a gray shirt with torn off sleeves. The baby lies wrapped in a blanket that seems to be very dirty. The clothing on the other children appears to be dirty as well. It also appears to be too big for the children. The mother and children do not seem to have showered for a while; the dirt around the baby's mouth and the dirt on the children’s hands support this greatly. The setting behind the family also shows their poverty level. They are migrants so they probably didn’t have a house of their own and appear to be living in a tent. “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how