Mother Before Migrant: The Role of Respect in Dorothea Lange’s Photography

Lange, from what I’ve seen and read, focuses a great deal on dignifying the people she photographs. Her subjects are almost always the beaten down, oppressed, or otherwise struggling members of society, from sharecroppers to the Japanese internment camp prisoners. Her definition of dignifying them does not include romanticizing their situations or making their lives seem any sort of better than they actually are, but in understanding that her subjects are worthy of respect in spite of it all. Her documentary photography was driven by this desire to make things better- in true documentary fashion, photographs can be a method of social change. By directing the gaze of the country to the people we don’t see or would rather ignore, Lange is telling us that we can and need to do something about the conditions her subjects are living in. Lange was disabled herself, “lame from an attack of polio at age eleven,”(Gordon 3) informing her worldview; the oppressed were not to be seen as weaker or “less than” simply because they had been cast aside by much of society. In the photograph I chose, A Life Beyond Limits, Lange focuses directly on her subject. In the background, you can tell that they are within an internment camp. There are fences and small housing units, but they are all blurred and out of direct focus: the forefront is the man and the child. He is not smiling, but he is in a position of dignity: he is standing and looking directly at the camera, making the audience aware of his autonomy. The hardness in his face is reminiscent of that shown in Migrant Mother. It is not something that the audience will pity, but respect, and in turn, feel a little more for the subject and his circumstances. Eventually, one of these observers may just do something about it.

Gordon, Linda. Dorothea Lange : A Life beyond Limits. New York, Ny, Norton, Cop, 2009.

“Manzanar, Calif. (Photographer: Dorothea Lange).” Digital Collections, 2019, digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/292149?v=uv#?xywh=-659%2C78%2C2817%2C1458. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.