The photo "Migrant Mother" was taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936. The photograph depicts a destitute mother, Florence Owens Thompson, and her children during the Great Depression era in the United States.
Lange took the photograph while working for the Farm Security Administration, a government agency tasked with providing aid to farmers and migrant workers during the Depression. She encountered Thompson and her family at a pea-pickers' camp in Nipomo, California.
The photograph shows Thompson, who was 32 years old at the time, with three of her seven children. Many people miss the infant she is holding in the photograph. She is looking off to the side, with a worried expression on her face, while her children huddle around her. The image captures the poverty and hardship of the time and has become an iconic representation of the era.
The photograph was widely published and quickly became famous, drawing attention to the plight of migrant workers and their families during the Depression. It has since been recognized as one of the most important photographs in American history and has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries.
Despite the success of the photograph, Thompson and her family continued to struggle, and she later regretted the attention that the photograph brought her. She died in 1983, at the age of 80.
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