Hello All,
This post will take you a little longer, so I'm going to give you until Friday afternoon to finish this one, and I'll post a description of your next essay on Saturday.
1. Read the file on "Using Quotes."
2. Read Susan Sontag's essay "The Image World." (Both of these files are posted on Blackboard)
3. Write a one-paragraph analysis of Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California" in which you use your newly revised powers of description and three direct quotes from Sontag that help you explain what the photograph "means" and how we as an audience can and do relate to the image.
One quote must be introduced with an introductory phrase; one quote must be introduced with an independent clause and a colon; and phrases from one quote must be used in the context of your own syntax.
This post will take you a little longer, so I'm going to give you until Friday afternoon to finish this one, and I'll post a description of your next essay on Saturday.
1. Read the file on "Using Quotes."
2. Read Susan Sontag's essay "The Image World." (Both of these files are posted on Blackboard)
3. Write a one-paragraph analysis of Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California" in which you use your newly revised powers of description and three direct quotes from Sontag that help you explain what the photograph "means" and how we as an audience can and do relate to the image.
One quote must be introduced with an introductory phrase; one quote must be introduced with an independent clause and a colon; and phrases from one quote must be used in the context of your own syntax.
Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph, "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California", is a devasting depection of the Great Depression in the 1930's. I have always been a fan of this picture because it's sadly real and meaningful. This was one of the most trifiling times in American History and this simple picture characterizes it in every way. In the photograph is a mother who has sad worried eyes while her children helplessly linger to her.
ReplyDeleteSusan Sontag's essay "The Image World", explains the beauty and importance of photography. The author argues,"Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality, understood as recalcitrant, inaccessible; of making it stand still" this is vainly true with the photgraph becuase one can see that at that exact moment, this woman looked helpess stuck in the reality of the Great Depression. Although the picture is mostly sad it also shows: "In its simplest form, a photograph is a surrogate possesion of a cherished person or thing," and we feel sympathy for this person who has a family and is in need but it is also, "a possesion which gives photographs some of the character of unique objects" and this makes us understand that she also has a gleam of hope in her. Furthermore, this is a beautiful photograph because it makes one feel like they were "having a photograph of Shakespeare" because that would give his works a face to look at but this picture gives us a sincere feel "like having a nail from the True Cross" and this gives the viewer a feel that they were really there at the time.
Thu Writes:
ReplyDeleteDorothea Lange's 1936 photograph "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California", is a photograph that has great importance in the Great Depression which took place in the 1930s. As one can see from the picture, there is a woman who looks far ahead. Eyes filled with worry, fear, and exhaustion. Her children, are at her side, faces buried deep in their mother's arms. We as the audience can almost feel and for some can relate to how hard of a time, this woman and her children are facing. I know for some of us, we have been through some hard times. Today, we are facing some hardship on our own. Business has never been a worst time to begin with and many homeowners are striving to keep their homes.
Susan Sontag's essay "The Image World", is about the importance and power of photography. The author argues, "a powerful instrument for depersonalizing our relation to the world; and the two uses are complementary. Like a pair of binoculars with no right or wrong end, the camera makes exotic things near, intimate; and familiar things small, abstract,
strange, much farther away" (Sontag, 1973, p. 167). It is true, because through the camera's lens, it can capture depth, truth, happiness, fear, agony, and all the emotions that are shown on our face. Similarly to Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California", we see her emotions and the hard time she is facing.
The picture shows the hardship that this woman and her children face: "through photographs, we also have a consumer's relation to events, both to events which are part of our experience and to those which are not" (Sontag, 1973, p. 155-156). A photograph has the power of capturing details from real life experiences.
However, the beauty of this picture is that the picture explains much of the details and what happened during that time. One can look at this picture and instantly relate and feel what the woman and her children are feeling. This picture captures the audience attention and gives "instant access to the real" meaning of this picture, which it stands for The Great Depression of 1930's(Sontag, 1973, p. 164).
Reference:
Sontag, S. (1973). The image world. New York: Picador.
Stacy Box
ReplyDeleteDorothea Lange’s 1936 photograph “Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California”
The black and white photo, “Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California” by Dorothea Lange (1936), depicts a mother with two children clinging to her shoulders and an infant in her lap. The subjects appear as worn as the photo; they look tired, worried, and tattered. No one is speaking; it is eerily quiet. The image, aquired during the great depression, offers viewers “not only an image, an interpretation of the real; [but] also a trace, something stenciled off the real, like a footprint”; a real sense of the magnitude of worry felt during this time (Sontag 154). The photograph places the viewer directly in the moment of desperation: “photography has the powers that no other image-system has ever enjoyed” (Sontag 158). Sontag adds, “Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality” (163).
Works Cited
Sontag, Susan. “The image world.” On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973
Stacy Box
ReplyDeleteI would like to add that certain formatting does not work in this blog. For example, underlining and hanging indents disappear.
Berkley writes:
ReplyDeleteAt first glance, this woman seems exhausted; her whole family seems exhausted. Raising three children alone (at least it appears so) must be tiresome. Being in black and white only adds to the somber theme of this photo. This family looks tattered and only provokes the thought of “What was happening while this photo was taken?” or “What happened before that led up to this photo?” As Susan Sontag stated, photography “creates a tremendous curiosity about these event[s] (168).” I completely agree with her. By simply looking at a photograph, one might be able to the image in “deciphering behavior [and] predicting it (Sontag 157).” Furthermore, I wonder if this particular picture can promote these children’s memories of what was occurring at the time they were photographed. Photographs have been said to bring people back to the time of the photograph: “as an instrument of memory (Sontag 165).”
Sontag, Susan. “The image world.” On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973
Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph, "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California”
ReplyDeleteLange’s photograph, “Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California,” is a depicting picture of the Great Depression. The migrant mother is patiently waiting in despair for some sort of help. Her eyes are overly filled with worry and exhaustion. Her children clinging onto her trying to look in the opposite direction do the embarrassment that they experience. Her facial wrinkles note the facial expressions she has been showing for awhile. This picture is meaningful in American History it depicts one of Americas hardships, currently we are faced another hardship.
“The Image World” by Susan Sontag
Sontag’s essay “The Image World,” states the power and significance that photography holds. Susan Sontag agues: “such images are indeed able to usurp reality because first of all a photograph is not only an image, an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace…like a footprint or a death mask” like the migrant mother seizes reality and holds a significant representation of the Great Depression (154). “Migrant Mother” portrait is a symbol of the hardship in American History. The image of this mother and her two children face; “though photographs, we also have a consumer’s relation to events.” (Sontag 155). This photograph shows the first hand experience of the life experiences this family went through. “Migrant Mother” portrait captures the audiences’ eyes and gives us a sense of the feeling of the challenges they faced. Sontag states: “photographs are a way of imprisoning reality” thus meaning that in this portrait it’s capturing the moment for it to be remembered in the future (163).
Sontag, Susan. “The Image World.” On Photography. New York: Picador USA, 1973
Miguel Arellano
ReplyDeleteDorothea Lange's 1936 photograph "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California”, is a historical depiction of the true horrors of the Great Depression. The photograph is in black in white which gives it more of a sad and cold feeling. The absence of color also portrays a dark and miserable state. In the photograph one can feel the heartbreak in the mother’s eyes as she looks devastated, but hopeful for her future. The mother’s two children find warmth as they bury their heads into their mother’s heavy shoulders. Many people can relate to this photograph, because everyone at one point in life has been through a moment of hopelessness which has led to feeling depressed.
In Sontag’s essay “The Image World”, the author explains the power and importance of photography. Sontag argues,” A photograph is not only an image [...] it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask” (Sontag, 1973, p 154). Furthermore, the author argues,” Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality” (Sontag, 1973, p 163). People are attracted to photos which are real or which show a factual event in history. People relate more to pictures which stir feelings in them, like Dorothea Lange’s photograph. Something in those pictures has some kind of meaning or attachment to people. Many pictures are very important to people. A picture of family or a loved one who has passed away holds sentimental value: “like having a nail from the True Cross” (Sontag, 1973, p 154). Having a nail from the cross in which Jesus was crucified holds the same importance as a picture of a loved one, because it makes them feel like they’re truly with that image.
Works Cited
Sontag, Susan.”The Image World.” On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973
Susan Sontag, the author of “The Image World” suggests images “themselves coveted substitutes for firsthand experience” (153). As I analyze Dorothea Lange’s 1936 photo of a women and her three children during the Great Depression, I cannot help but envision myself in her position; as most people would upon looking at such a moving image. It looks as if her somber, yet piercing eyes gaze into a future filled with despair and hardships. I see a troubled widow struggling to support her children like a wilting tree fighting to stay in root during a hurricane. Yet, she holds herself like a rock for her tattered and helpless children. This woman exemplifies an unbreakable bond between a mother and son. The shades of grey give a silent ambiance capable of stopping time that allows its viewers to absorb the feelings associated with the era: “such images are indeed able to usurp reality because first of all a photograph is not only an image…an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stenciled of the real, like a footprint…” (Sontag 154). Images like that of the women and her children are “pieces of evidence” that we collectively gather in defining who we are as a species; they are our “ongoing biography” (Sontag 166).
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Sontag, Susan. “The Image World.” On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973
Val Lewis said……
ReplyDeleteHelpless abandoned look of despair is finely depicted within the frames of Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph, "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California.” Despair and abandon was at the forefront of the people that migrated from Oklahoma, in 1936. With the wave of dust that rolled over many farm fields within America’s Midwest sprung the “Okie” people looking for a new start in the sometimes harsh land in America. The image of dust and dirt that lay upon the farm fields and its people are remembered within the black and white photo of a not so long ago American dilemma. Within the framework of mother with children clinging to each other with little hope for a comfortable and less hungry future, the image captures the true grit of early American life. Lange’s photograph captures history.
Susan Sontag's essay "The Image World", establishes the importance of photography and how an image can capture some reality, but not all of it. Sontag suggests that, “The mechanical genesis of these images, and the literalness of the posers they confer, amounts to a new relationship between image and reality” (Sontag, 1973, 158). Lange’s photo relates many aspect of the “Okie’s” reality, however; the true sense of emotion, circumstance, and geography may be hidden behind the frame. Sontag contributes the notion of “the partial identity of image and objects potency of the image is now experienced in a very different way” (Sontag, 1973, 158). The prospected view of the pictures reality is now subjected to the viewer’s opinion and emotional assumption of circumstance as it is related to his own view of reality.
Reference: Sontag, S. (1973). The image world. New York: Picador.
Kimberley:
ReplyDeleteDorthoea Lange’s black and white photo, “Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California”, portrays a mother that has three children in the depression era. Each person in the picture looks like they have been through a lot. The mother looks depressed while the children look worn out. Sontag states that photography “creates a tremendous curiosity about these event[s] (168).” This picture does bring curiosity to mind because the woman in the picture might look depressed but she just might be happy. The way a photograph appears to the audience can give them a sense of what is going on in a certain time period: “such images are indeed able to usurp reality because first of all a photograph is not only an image…an interpretation of the real;...” (Sontag 154). A photograph can tell ones life story "a powerful instrument for depersonalizing our relation to the world; and the two uses are complementary. Like a pair of binoculars with no right or wrong end, the camera makes exotic things near, intimate; and familiar things small, abstract, strange, much farther away" (Sontag, 1973, p. 167). A photograph is worth a thousand words.
Sontag, Susan. “The image world.” On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973
Sasha Velasquez
ReplyDeleteIn Susan Sontag"s essay "The Image World," she explains how a photograph captures reality. Sontag staes, "Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality” (Sontag, 1973, p 163). For example, Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph, "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California,” expresses the hardships individuals and families experienced during the Great Depression in the 1930's. The mother looks exhausted and is trying to stay strong for her three children. Her children cling to her for comfort and clarity. She looks ahead, fearing what the future has to bring for her and her children. I can feel her pain and struggle to support herself and most importantly her children: “though photographs, we also have a consumer’s relation to events.” (Sontag 155). Many people can look at this picture and relate to her because at some point we have experienced some hardship. This photograph is an important image, which captured history and "implies that there will be others"(Sontag, 166) like it.
Works Cited
Sontag, Susan. “The Image World.” On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973
Dorothea Lange’s photo “Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California” presents a very dark, heartbreaking photo of a woman and two children hiding their faces on her shoulder. The photo is expressed in complete black and white with no color, so it easy to assume that something upsetting has happened. The photo does seem very realistic from 1936 as there were a lot of controversial war’s and changes in society: “Knowing a great deal about what is in the world (art, catastrophe, the beauties of nature) through photographic images, people are frequently disappointed, surprised, unmoved when they see the real thing” (Sontag, 168). There can be a lot of assumptions made to how the viewer of the photograph can think, the reality of it provides a great connection to when something terrible has happened, and empathy is a great thought provoker. “Photography has powers that no other image-system has ever enjoyed because, unlike the' earlier ones, it is not dependent on an image maker” could not be more appropriate than it is to this photograph, it has captured a feeling that could not be duplicated as well if a photographer tried (Sontag, 158).
ReplyDeleteSontag, Susan. “The Image World.” On photography. New York: Picador, 1973
Dorothea's fantastic picture captures the realness of an ordianry woman who is distressed. It captures the reality of this woman and her family's situation as a migrant people: "[...] a photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real" (Sontag p. 154). It depicts the family's poorness, the inadequate living siuations and shows the struggles of her life. This moment in time was capture many years ago, but this migrant woman's story will continue to live on forever. As Sontag suggests, "The photographic exploration
ReplyDeleteand duplication of the world fragments continuities and feeds the pieces into an interminable dossier." The meaning of the photo will continue to live on being deposited into people's live for generations to come (Sontag p. 156). This particular moment caught in time, is "imprisoning reality," almost as if "making [time] stand still (Sontag p. 163). The picture has caught the essence of what was a struggle then in the 1960's to something that is still relatable now in the present.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973.
In Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph, "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California” she depicts a tired, restless woman who sits, unsure of what the next day may hold for her children and her. The photograph illustrates the loving bond between a mother and her child as well as the fight for survival. In Susan Sontag’s essay “The Image World,” she writes that “photographs are a way of imprisoning reality (Sontag, 163).” Dorthea Lange accomplished just that in her photo, for she captured not only a beautiful and powerful image but an historical accounting of the true struggles people faced during the Great Depression. The woman shows hunger, exhaustion, worry, and hopelessness, yet she still fights to survive. The image brings sadness knowing that there were others suffering just as the migrant mother. “Photographic images are pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history” ( Sontag, 167). History is represented in this photo that most American’s have not stopped to reflect on. Lange’s photo “enlarges a reality that is felt to be shrunk[en]” in the twenty-first century (Sontag, 167). The migrant mother brings about a sense of encouragement and makes me feel incredibly blessed.
ReplyDeleteReference
Sontag, Susan. “The Image World.” On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973.
Alberto Panchi
ReplyDeleteAs I observe Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California," a depiction of the Great Depression in America in the 1930’s, I see a desperate poor woman cover in fear and confusion with the hope of being saved from the abominable situation of poverty. She seems preoccupied, hungry, and tired. She seems confused, her face expression reflects desperation and sadness, she looks in shock, without the capability of moving a single muscle, as if the world stood still for a minute and she was unable to snap out of the paralyzed zone she is caught in. The portrayal image of a mother and her three children, one child on each shoulder and a baby on her lap, seems to make the situation worst, not only she has to worry about herself but she has to worry about her children. She reflects pain through her eyes. The mother seems as if she is wondering about how she’s going to feed her children. During the day she probably has a hard time finding food and water. She seems to be a strong working woman and a love caring mother who loves her children because even though times are rough, she keeps her children close to her to provide them protection. Stress seems to be taking away her age really fast. The family looks unstable and their state of poverty is clearly captured on the image projected.
The picture relates to the present in many ways, for example, all individuals go through hardships which they keep in their mind like a photograph printed inside their head. Sontag implies that, “[…] a photograph is not only an image […] it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint […]” (154). A photograph is a footprint that it’s valuable to an individual because it represents a happy or sad moment in their life. According to Susan Sontag, “[…] what photography supplies is not only a record of the past but a new way of dealing with the present […]” (166). All the good and bad experiences people encounter in the past helps them become stronger in the present. Poverty was in the past and is in the present a big problem. Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph is a perfect example of individuals living in poverty. Poverty is like a cycle in our society, a story that will repeat itself over and over again and will be kept as a photograph which contains “pieces of evidence” which are used to remember or analyze “an ongoing biography or history” (Sontag 166). Many people don’t know what poverty really means, but at least they have an idea of what it is; an idea that is provided with a captive picture: “Often something disturbs us more in photographed form than it does when we actually experience it” (Sontag168). There are many things to say about this picture, but at the end the picture on its own is worth more than a thousand words.
Works Cited
Sontag, Susan. “The Image World.” On Photography. New York: Picador USA, 1973
“Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California” is a black-and-white photograph by Dorothea Lange depicting a mother looking solemnly into the camera while two kids lean on her shoulder. This photograph, shot in 1936, has become the symbol of the Great Depression because it provides a visual imagery of people’s hardship, which “could not even be dreamed of under the earlier system of recording information: writing.” (Sontag, 156) Photographs, such as this one, move the viewer in a way that cannot be felt through reading: “Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality” (Sontag, 163) Sontag also states “Photography has powers that no other image-system has ever enjoyed.”
ReplyDeleteSontag, Susan. “The Image World.” On photography. New York: Picador, 1973
In Dorothea Lange’s 1936 photograph, “Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California”, the idea of the mother giving permission to be photographed is questioned because she appears to be in a pensive state, whereas, her children are turning away and hiding behind her shoulders in possible fear of the photographer. The mother appears to be unaware of her surroundings and lost in thought. The clothes they are wearing are worn signifying a long and tiresome struggle to survive, therefore, giving the family a sense of hopelessness.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Susan Sontag in the excerpt “The Image World” from On Photography, “Through photographs, we also have a consumers relation to events, both to events which are part of our experience and to those which are not” (155). As the consumer of Lange’s photograph, “Migrant Mother”, although we are not present, we have knowledge of the event and, therefore, sympathize with the mother and her children. For those who were not present in a life-changing event, images illustrate history: “The photographic exploration and duplication of the world fragments continuities and feeds the pieces into an interminable dossier” (Sontag 156). Images may be controversial because of their content and what they may portray to society, but “photographic images are pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history” that are beneficial sources of knowledge (Sontag 166).
Araceli Ramirez
In Dorothea Lange's 1936 black and white photo "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California", we approach a strong independent woman with her two children hiding behind her for strength and protection. The photograph is a look into the mother's life: "a foot print or death mask"(Sontag 154). The intense eyes of the mother show hardship but perseverance. The photograph is a look into what the mother inherits daily. Her life becomes captured in the photo and becomes a way of "imprisoning reality, understood as recalcitrant, inaccessible; of making it stand still" (Sontag 163). Sontag creates two attitudes towards photography one that is in reflection as "the world is material for the camera" and the other attitude reflecting photographs to just "be recorded" full of information and circumstance, the photo of the Migrant Mother portrays that which is in total reflection of the world and the material that is contained(178-179).
ReplyDeletework cited:
Sontag, Susan. “The image world.” On Photography. New York: Picador, 1973
Gaia Yarber:
ReplyDeleteDorthea Lange 1936, “Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California” is a striking photograph no doubt about that. The drastic contrasts are what draws us to conclude it is a interesting picture.
As I look at this picture I see the concern on her face, the thoughts that I can only imagine run though a parents head as they sit and realize that have been stuck. Her children are filthy, she is herself covered head to toe in dirt. Struggling to find her next option the wear of the world is on her shoulders her face, and physically on her own shoulders. In the quote “though being photographed, something becomes part of a system of information;” (Sontag 156) her struggles I can only over think all the options she has to think of. This quote from Sontag shows that we all can learn from photographs and especially in this case of Lange’s picture being able to be used as a learning experience for the rest of us to see how the depression affected all those around. It hit everything as we can see, families, individuals, etc it was like a rippling effect that has had amounts to do what we currently deal with in today’s societies. “a photograph is not only like its subject, a homage to the subject.” (Sontag 155) Now the picture isn’t making us concentrate on just the woman and her children it is a representation of all that has happened in the depression. It makes us think of the past and her current struggle. It makes us sympathetic to her dilemma, by capturing the moment we are able to share forever. “A photograph gives control over the thing photographed.” (Sontag 157) now we only seem to think about the thing being photographed as the controlling or main object but why don’t we consider the feeling, emotion, and passion that this photograph not only contains but painfully gives off.
"Migrant Mother" photograph by Dorothea Lange is a picture of a mother and her two children awaiting for something to happen. The woman's face shows worries and depression within her. Her clothes are dirty, her hair is uncombed, her children appear to be hiding from the photographer as it takes this picture. The boys find refuge behind their mother's shoulders. Mom is just deeply thinking what would happen to them. When I see this photograph, I can actually feel what this family might have been going thru, hunger, pain, coldness, sickness, and worst of all no one to go to if in need. Every body was in a similar situation during the great depression. As Susan Sontag says in her essay, " Such images indeed able to usurp reality because first of all a photograph is not only an image(as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask." (Sontag 154). I believe this is true because a photograph is how you appeared to be in that instant whether sad, happy, worried, etc.
ReplyDelete