The document provides background information on Dorothea Lange's iconic photograph "Migrant Mother", taken in 1936. It details how Lange came upon the hungry mother and her children in California and took multiple photos. The image was later used in FDR's New Deal campaign to promote social welfare programs. Questions are asked about why the photo was cropped to not show all the children and what newspaper headlines could accompany the photo.

1. Media Studies Yr 12 Lesson 1 – The Still Image

2. Photographs Look at the following image: What can you say about it? Where was is taken? Who took it? What does it show? You have 5 mins to write down your initial response. Discuss with your neighbour. Did you both have the same ‘reading’?

4. Key Terms Denotation – what you can see Connotation – the implied meanings Composition – how elements are put together Shot type – distance of camera to subject Framing – how the image is framed Lighting – high or low key Camera position – close up or far away Mise-en-scene – what has been included in the frame

5. Textual Analysis What can you say about the effect of the following: the composition the framing the lighting the camera position the-mise-en-scene (what has been included in the picture) What do you think is outside of the frame?

6. Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" The photograph that has become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration. In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience: I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean - to tent with her children huddled around her …(From: Popular Photography , Feb. 1960).

7. This image was used in FD Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ campaign – to sell a system of social welfare to well off Americans. Why? Why do you think that the image was cropped so that it did not include her other four children? If you were a newspaper editor (tabloid/broadsheet), what would your headline be for this image? (anchorage)