The photographer was Dorothea Lange.
In early 1935, […] Lange began to work for the California State Emergency Relief Administration. That summer, the agency was transferred to the RA, which had recently begun a photodocumentary project to draw attention to the plight of the rural poor. (In 1937, the RA would become the Farm Security Administration, or FSA.) Lange worked for the FSA periodically between 1935 and 1939, primarily traveling around California, the Southwest, and the South to document the hardships of migrant farmers who had been driven west by the twin devastations of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
She’s the photographer who took the “Migrant Mother” series, some of the most iconic images of the Depression.
Fucking pathetic then and it’s fucking pathetic now. Some of those shanty towns were real fuckin nice compared to our tent cities.
Fucking pathetic, we could do better but instead humanity would rather be a selfish cunt
Holy cow, the wife looks hardly 25 years old. They really popped kids out back to back in them days. I guess it’s true you just believed in the Lord, had a bunch of young’uns, and hoped and prayed to Jesus Christ at least one of them made it to adulthood. Contrast that to the middle class lifestyle of many Americans just a little more than a decade later and it becomes even more of a mind-blower.
Thats not the wife, the wife probably is in the back of the older teenager girl that you think that is the wife. You can see a foot.
Two adults, four children, two dogs and they only carry a small suitcase and a bundle. Wild.
Remember that back then, we had far fewer vaccines, people got sick with terrible illnesses all the time. The Spanish flu had killed millions just a little less than 15 years prior. People also starved and died too. We didn’t have the complex supply chains that could deliver fresh foods around the world, either. We are incredibly lucky these days. We really do take it for granted.
Smallpox, measles, polio, and other diseases were still in full swing.
These people are homeless and dress better than I do with a decent job. That’s depressing.
This is likely their one and only outfit but I can almost guarantee those are some durable fabrics, Dad’s clothes will still be in great condition for when their son fits them and thats one of the things people used to specifically look for when buying fabrics/clothes.
The modern world of fast fashion couldn’t be more off an opposite.
Is there more information available about this photo?
I really like how the dogs are counted as family members :)
There’s someone behind the mother, I assume possibly carrying a baby. (Look closely at mom’s feet and you can see theirs.)
Edit: That’s assuming that’s the mother, and not whoever is behind her. She does look pretty young.
You’re right, I completely missed that person!
And right wingers would call them freeloaders and tell them to get a job
They had nowhere to go, how are they going to get a job and there are many other factors why someone cannot work
Also fuck capitalism, we should be free to live our lives and not be slaves to the capitalist system
I wonder how things were going in the USSR at this point in history. Surely everyone always had enough to eat and enjoyed freedom of movement.
Stalin was rubbing his hands together excitedly, about to send people into the meat grinder.
You are free to live you life. Are there armed guards preventing you entering the forest and living off birds you kill with your hands and sleeping on pine needles? Be my guest.
Or do you mean “we should be free to have farmers work for my food, and have 20 people come build me a house, all for free”?
Are there armed guards preventing you entering the forest and living off birds you kill with your hands and sleeping on pine needles?
Well, yes, actually. Not without reason, but literally, yes. Typically some combination of public property, private property, and wildlife/safety regulations stop that from being a long-term solution. Depending on how far away from society you go, you can escape scrutiny for a time, but you’ll never be safe from the threat of the cops rolling in and destroying whatever you have and dragging you out for trespassing or violating public land ordinances.
Plenty of hermits say otherwise.
Wow you suck
No, I work, because stuff costs labor.
The people in this picture worked too, then the system collapsed due to rampant financial speculation and they were made destitute. Along with hundreds and thousands of others. People literally starved to death during this time.
If your response to the idea that perhaps things could be better for the people who work and contribute labour for your stuff is “well if you don’t like it, go live in the wilderness”, you suck.
Go farming. Grow your own food. Build your own house. Vote for a government that provides social services. Forage. Barter. Get a different job.
There’s like a thousand solutions.
Sorry, just go farming and build your own house? Do you think those things don’t have significant upfront costs that would be a barrier to people in precarious conditions?
This is not a serious argument, it’s completely detached from the actual barriers people face in reality
Really, those things have cost? Seriously? No way!
Next thing you’re going to tell me is that the people who already incurred in those costs (farmers, construction workers) want to earn money to cover those costs and their labor!!
What a scandal!
Don’t care
It’s obvious you’re a right winger
Lol, even a fast peruse of my comment history will show you that even for European standards I’m quite progressive.
Which might be why I demand fair compensation for hard working laborers, no matter what online edgelords think they are entitled to.
It’s OK.
In another year Daddy gets drafted and starts making money.
A year after that he gets killed in WW2.
And at the end of the war, all the Boomer children in this photo get rich and have keep all the money for themselves…
Boomers were born after WWII, these kids would have been the silent generation.
Better dressed than most modern people with a home and employment.
This was before fast fashion. Clothes were more expensive, but better made. You had far fewer pieces of clothing, and you’d repair them if they got worn, torn, loose seams, etc. The fact that there are five people carrying a small suitcase and a rolled-up pack between them suggests that most - if not all - of their clothes are on their backs.
Yup, I’d take a larger suitcase on a vacation. Moving nowadays wouldn’t be possible without a vehicle.
I worked out of my 3 day old pajamas today.
It’s a great time to be alive and privileged!
