Wed, Feb 1, 2023 11:33

According to Roy Stryker, “ the migrant mother by Dorothea Lange is the ultimate photo of the depression era”. The photograph is the impetus of the great realization that help is needed. The mother’s expression in the photo, and her emotions are the printed image of the great depression. The photo captures hopelessness, hardship, and struggle during that time. 
The Migrant Mother photograph’s role during the great depression is to raise awareness of the living condition of the neglected population and the photo proved effective. According to the reading, “the photos had an immediate impact on federal bureaucrats, who quickly rushed 20,000 pounds of food supplies to pea-picker camp in Nipomo”. Help did arrive but the intended already left, seeking where life could have been kinder elsewhere. 
Nowadays, the photo remains hard evidence of the cruel past and has outlived its purpose beyond the Great Depression. As for Katherine MacIntosh, the Migrant Mother’s daughter,"[T] he picture came out in the paper to show the people what hard times was”. The Great Depression may be ages ago, but poverty, to this very day, lingers on. News of migrant workers being exploited, homelessness, and joblessness continues to eat society. The Migrant Mother photo is not just a representation of an era, it is a representation of a real situation that still haunts us to this very day. We are still in hard times, people barely getting by and maybe that very same photo could remind those in power, the “Migrant Mother” is still very much every one of us who lives very far below the millionaire’s row.