Dorothea Lange captures the essence of the civilians trying to maintain a way to pay for necessities for their families. As they are gathered waiting, any person examining this image can see the severity of the Great Depression because this is one of many areas that offered relief checks and in this image alone there are around 30 or more people. This image does not depict a negative mood or emotion, the reason for that is when examining this image, the groups of people are talking among themselves, smiling, generating a positive mood. Had the background information of this photo been unknown, it would be hard to determine what exactly is happening in this image. The setting takes place at a couple stores, people gathered outside, that doesn't necessarily explain the image.
The other reason this image is more positive than negative is the fact that during the Great Depression, relief checks were helpful to these civilians, and this image depicts one of the positive attributes of the Great Depression rather than the hardships and migrant workers struggling for pay and a place to live. Based on my observations of this image, Dorothea Lange wanted to show that even in a time of despair and tragedy, people could still come together and socialize and find something positive during a time like the Great Depression.
- Hayley Hedden
You were like me in how you viewed the photograph in a positive aspect instead of negative. I really think Dorothea Lange liked to capture through her photographs that although the times were hard that it brought people together in ways never before. I like you would not have known that this picture was taken during the great depression because the energy in the crowd seems very positive. They are all chatting with one another and smiling. Their clothes and appearance seems to be not at all what you would think. When I think Great Depression I think of dirty tired faces and ragged dirty clothes. You did a good job pointing out all the things that makes this picture positive!
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I have to say, this is a pretty interesting pick. From the analysis to the photo, it's all pretty intriguing. I want to touch on something that I didn't see in your analysis, and that would be the people themselves. They appear to range from lower to middle class, the age spread seems to be pretty wide, and there appear to be individuals alongside families. It's a great depiction of how the Great Depression affected people of all ranks, regardless of who they were or how they lived. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHayley draws out attention here to something often not thought of when we consider the circumstances of the Great Depression. I like how you have shown that knowing the context for an image offers a lot of help interpreting it. As you have written, it would be difficult to understand what is going on here, and certainly to see it as any sort of struggle, just my looking at the people who are gathered. Otherwise, we could assume that they are waiting for a meeting to start, or even some sort of event. Thanks for contextualizing this for us!
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