Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California by Sarah Hermanson Meister

Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California by Sarah Hermanson Meister

The United States was in the midst of the Depression when photographer Dorothea Lange, a portrait-studio owner, began documenting the country's rampant poverty. Her depictions of unemployed men wandering the streets of San Francisco gained the attention of one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal agencies, the Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration), and she started photographing the rural poor under its auspices. Her images triggered a pivotal public recognition of the lives of sharecroppers, displaced families, and migrant workers. One day in Nipomo, California, Lange recalled, she 'saw and approached [a] hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet.' The woman's name was Frances Owens Thompson, and the result of their encounter was five exposures, including Migrant Mother , which would become an iconic piece of documentary photography.

Richard Cahan and Michael Williams are noted photo historians. They have teamed up to produce more than twelve books. Most are based on long-lost archives or photographic collections. Called the eloquent archival sleuthing duo by Booklist magazine's Donna Seaman, they have written award-winning books about photography, art, and history, including two on Vivian Maier, the reclusive nanny whose discovered photographic work has become a worldwide sensation.

Their most recent book is Un-American, a careful look at government photographs taken of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II by Dorothea Lange and other government photographers. Wrote Booklist: In this unique, richly produced volume, they showcase 170 magnificent black-and-white pictures accompanied by an exceptionally illuminating narrative to tell the staggering stories of the resilient, courageous people Lange and others so sensitively photographed. Cahan and Williams even tracked down survivors, who share haunting memories. The result is an intensely revelatory and profoundly resonant book of beauty and strength, history and caution.

Adam Green is a history professor at the University of Chicago and author of Selling the Race: Culture and Community in Black Chicago, 1940-1955. He is currently helping to create the official oral history of Barack Obama's presidency, and recently contributed an op-ed piece on the 1919 Chicago race riots for the New York Times.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781633450660
ISBN 10	163345066X
Title	Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California
Author	Sarah Hermanson Meister
Series	Moma One On One Series
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Museum of Modern Art
Year published	2019-02-28
Number of pages	48
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.