The Great Depression is something our nation as well as the rest of the world will likely never forget. The time period from the early 1930s to –in some cases – the end of World War 2 was the worst depression of the 20th century and is still used as an example of just how bad our economy can get to this day. The Great Depression affected not only the stock market and banks but also had an effect on almost every citizen's personal bank account, all of which tend to have a domino effect on one another. During "Black Tuesday", the day of the stock market crash of 1929, chaos ensued as people rushed to the banks to try to save their hard earned money, but to no avail. Jobs were lost, businesses completely shut down, and people who once considered themselves well to do plummeted below the poverty line. Those who once lived in fancy apartments in big cities ended up working in the fields, such as Florence Owens Thompson as portrayed in the iconic photo Migrant Mother taken by famed documentary photographer Dorothea Lange. This photo undoubtedly epitomizes not only the Great Depression or documentary photography but of the struggles of a mother and families that were gravely affected by the sudden deterioration of the economy. "Having captured the plight of Midwestern farmers who were forced to flee the Dust Bowl and move west in search of work, the picture became the iconic image of the Great Depression."1 Though it was taken over 75 years ago, Dorothea Lange's timeless photo of Thompson and her children leaning on her who are all evidently dirty as well as exhausted has truly immortalized the true sense of the hardships of the Great Depression both physically and emotionally. .
World-renowned documentary photographer Dorothea Lange was born on May 26th, 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey. After her father abandoned her family when she was approximately 12 years old, Lange developed polio.