Migrant Cotton Picker Elizabeth, Arizona, Dorothea Lange, 1940
gelatin silver print, h 458mm × w 355mm
More details
© Oakland Museum of California
A young cotton picker in the grim years of the Great Depression. Lange was originally a portrait photographer, as is clear to see. In the 1930s she recorded the working and living conditions in rural America for the Farm Security Administration. In search of work, entire families migrated throughout the country, living in tents, shacks, and automobiles.