subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 12 October 2019 51
IMAGES OF THE PAST 135 YEARS
Claire Gillo, Acting
Technique Editor
‘Migrant Mother’, 1936,
by Dorothea Lange
I have hundreds of
favourite photos from the
past 135 years, and I’m
not exaggerating when I
say hundreds! It was tricky
to pick just one from the bunch but in
the end my heart went to Dorothea
Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’.
I have always felt this image is a
powerful portrait revealing so much
about the strength and endurance of
the human spirit, yet in the same breath
it shows the desperate conditions that
people had to endure. Lange, along
with other photographers in the Farm
Security Administration (FSA),
recorded the effects of the Great
Depression in the 1930s in the USA,
and to this day their images seem
poignant. ‘Migrant Mother’ was shot in
1936 in a fraught and significant time
in 20th-century history, and when the
world was about to be drawn into
another world war.
The first time I saw ‘Migrant Mother’
I was immediately drawn to the strong
and flawless composition of the portrait.
The heroic yet vulnerable mothercradles her baby in her arms with her
children clinging to her side in that
instinctive way children do. However
being a rather self-indulged teenager
at the time of my first encounter with
this photo, I think the emotional content
was slightly lost on me. It wasn’t until
later in life when I became a mother
myself that the protectiveness of her
position, and the fear she was obviously
living with but hiding away became
apparent. After the birth of my second
child I was flicking through a
photography book and the image took
on a whole new meaning. ‘Migrant
Mother’ is not only is a compositional
masterpiece, but one that has stood
the test of time and still connects with
the audience 83 years on.
I only learnt more about the image in
recent times. The mother in the image
is called Florence Owens Thompson;
however when Lange was shooting the
frames she did not find out her name.
From researching more it seems
Florence wasn’t all that keen on having
her portrait taken but agreed on the
basis that her image would help in
some way. Lange took six frames in
total and you can see why this image
was the one that made the cut. ‘Migrant
Mother’ reveals why photography can
be so powerful.Andy Westlake,
Technical Editor
‘Sifnos, Greece’, 1961,
by Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson needs no
introduction from me: opinion
tends to be split over whether he
was the most important
photographer of the 20th century,
or of all time. As a chronicler of the human
condition, his work has never been surpassed.
This image was shot on the tiny Greek island
of Sifnos, and in many ways it illustrates
everything that’s brilliant about his work. On
one level, it’s a study in architecture and the
interplay of light and shade. But it wouldn’t be
anything without the girl running up the steps,
whose presence ties the entire composition
together. It’s a perfect example of what
Cartier-Bresson meant by his most famous
phrase: ‘the decisive moment’.
I once visited Sifnos, and walked right past
this exact spot without noticing. I like to see this
as a measure of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s
genius: his ability to take an unremarkable
situation and make a truly remarkable
photograph.‘The heroic yet vulnerable mother cradles her
baby in her arms with her children clinging to
her side in that instinctive way children do’
© HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON / MAGNUM PHOTOS