Dublin Core
Title
Negro women near Earle, Arkansas 1936 - Dorothea Lange
Subject
Though the most iconic photojournalist of the Great Depression, Dorothea Lange, is arguably best known for her photo "Migrant Mother," she also took many more lesser known photos which show a side of the Great Depression which not many people care to look for.
My favorite example is this photo, of several African American women and one man gathered on a wooden porch in Arkansas.
The central activity taking place in the photo is the styling of the the breastfeeding woman's hair by the standing woman. Far more than just a singular moment of intimacy, this is also a perfect representation of the way in which many black women managed to survive and support their families during the 1930s. According to an article by clinical psychologist Kathy McMahon (http://bit.ly/1bx9qta), hairdressing was one of the two options which black women could choose from when deciding how to generate any amount of income (the other option being boarding house keeping). Many white hairdressers would refuse to style the hair of black women, due either to inexperience with non-white hair, discrimination, or both, and thus left a gap in the industry which only black women could fill. As more and more blacks migrated to the northern states, this created even more of a market in larger cities for black hairdressers. Thus, this photo is emblematic not only of female bonding and camaraderie during the 1930s but also of a larger industrial, economic, and cultural movement for black women specifically.
There is another aspect of the photo which I cannot fail to address, however. The woman breastfeeding her baby wears a facial expression which I can only liken to that of an ethereal beauty painted by a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: serene, only vaguely self-conscious of her image being captured, and almost angelic. I truly believe that this is the single closest photographic documentation to the "mysterious smile" which Rose of Sharon wears in the last sentence of the last chapter in "Grapes of Wrath," and yet it is one of Dorothea Lange's most uncelebrated and unrecognized photos.
My favorite example is this photo, of several African American women and one man gathered on a wooden porch in Arkansas.
The central activity taking place in the photo is the styling of the the breastfeeding woman's hair by the standing woman. Far more than just a singular moment of intimacy, this is also a perfect representation of the way in which many black women managed to survive and support their families during the 1930s. According to an article by clinical psychologist Kathy McMahon (http://bit.ly/1bx9qta), hairdressing was one of the two options which black women could choose from when deciding how to generate any amount of income (the other option being boarding house keeping). Many white hairdressers would refuse to style the hair of black women, due either to inexperience with non-white hair, discrimination, or both, and thus left a gap in the industry which only black women could fill. As more and more blacks migrated to the northern states, this created even more of a market in larger cities for black hairdressers. Thus, this photo is emblematic not only of female bonding and camaraderie during the 1930s but also of a larger industrial, economic, and cultural movement for black women specifically.
There is another aspect of the photo which I cannot fail to address, however. The woman breastfeeding her baby wears a facial expression which I can only liken to that of an ethereal beauty painted by a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: serene, only vaguely self-conscious of her image being captured, and almost angelic. I truly believe that this is the single closest photographic documentation to the "mysterious smile" which Rose of Sharon wears in the last sentence of the last chapter in "Grapes of Wrath," and yet it is one of Dorothea Lange's most uncelebrated and unrecognized photos.