Have been doing a photography course with my daughter - and chosen to do a project on the work of some of the photographers hired by the US Government in the 1930's to highlight the plight of the rural poor - especially those heading West to California to pick fruit. This slide show of work by Dorothea Lange is new to me. The Migrant Mother picture caught the imagination of the US nation when it appeared in 1933 and helped build momentum for Roosevelts New Deal push to address grinding rural poverty.
I was struck by how close the images seemed to my recall of Johns Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath. On digging a bit there was an absolutely straight link between this genre of photographs, Steinbeck the journalist who was appalled by the poverty - and then went ton to write his colossal book, the soon to be produced film of the book starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, and the Rooselvelt New Deal programme. It all comes together.
I am going to be interested in looking at any parallels with modern day movements of people
