Cruelty of the 1930s and The Effects That it Had it on Everyday Americans
In the image you can see a woman holding her baby and her two child sleeping on the ground beside her. The children male nourished and like they don’t have a home you can probably say this image was taken during the great depression. The first thing I notice is how depressed the woman is and the fact that her children don’t have pants. The image is arranged with woman holding a baby leaning against a door and her son on the right and her daughter on the right. The physical setting looks like they are outside a church and the imagery is very dark. It can also be interpreted as being very depressing. The feet of the children are very dirty and don’t have shoes. The clothes that this family is wearing is ripped something that I did not noticed before is the fact that it looks like the children ripped a part of their clothes to sleep on. I don’t for sure if the image takes place outside a church, but that is the only place I know it is safe for poor people to sleep in with having problems with cops because of the separation of church and state. The image is black and white which makes it look gloomier and sadder and adds a new effect to the image when you look at it. The photographer looks to be the same level as the subject he is taken a picture of. The vantage point helps us get a clearer look at the image and be able every detail the image has to offer. The photographer wants us to see the destitute and poverty that people in the 1930 had to offer and how difficulty it was for families to survive and have a home to sleep at. 
While I think the picture speaks for itself in the hardships faced by Americans during the Great Depression, I think it would have been more salient to describe the circumstances of the area that produced this scene.
ReplyDeleteWe have to remember, first and foremost, that these photographers were not sent out by their own volition, but were commissioned by the government itself to asses the situation in a format that could also itself serve as a historical document. When we are looking back upon the formation of this piece, more so than literature or painting, we are seeing a moment removed from time for preservation and display.
Vivek draws our attention to a lot of the components of this image that make it so powerful, particularly with regard to the children. Their lack of clothing and poor hygiene suggest that they might be homeless, as does the fact that they are sleeping on the street. If all three children belong to the woman in the image, what do you make of the absence of any father figure? I think that your guess about the building being a church or some other public building makes sense. Remember though that the image was taken in black-and-white because color photography was not yet available, so color wasn't removed from the image as an effect in the same way that we may add a black-and-white filter/effect to color pictures today.
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