this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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Homeless family traveling in hopes of receiving unemployment relief, Great Depression, USA, 1939 (media.kbin.social)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/historyporn
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The photographer was Dorothea Lange.

In early 1935, [...] Lange began to work for the California State Emergency Relief Administration. That summer, the agency was transferred to the RA, which had recently begun a photodocumentary project to draw attention to the plight of the rural poor. (In 1937, the RA would become the Farm Security Administration, or FSA.) Lange worked for the FSA periodically between 1935 and 1939, primarily traveling around California, the Southwest, and the South to document the hardships of migrant farmers who had been driven west by the twin devastations of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.

She's the photographer who took the "Migrant Mother" series, some of the most iconic images of the Depression.

[–] Fades 24 points 9 months ago

Fucking pathetic then and it’s fucking pathetic now. Some of those shanty towns were real fuckin nice compared to our tent cities.

Fucking pathetic, we could do better but instead humanity would rather be a selfish cunt

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Holy cow, the wife looks hardly 25 years old. They really popped kids out back to back in them days. I guess it's true you just believed in the Lord, had a bunch of young'uns, and hoped and prayed to Jesus Christ at least one of them made it to adulthood. Contrast that to the middle class lifestyle of many Americans just a little more than a decade later and it becomes even more of a mind-blower.

[–] LuckyBoy 10 points 9 months ago

Thats not the wife, the wife probably is in the back of the older teenager girl that you think that is the wife. You can see a foot.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Two adults, four children, two dogs and they only carry a small suitcase and a bundle. Wild.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Remember that back then, we had far fewer vaccines, people got sick with terrible illnesses all the time. The Spanish flu had killed millions just a little less than 15 years prior. People also starved and died too. We didn't have the complex supply chains that could deliver fresh foods around the world, either. We are incredibly lucky these days. We really do take it for granted.

Smallpox, measles, polio, and other diseases were still in full swing.

[–] Tier1BuildABear 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

These people are homeless and dress better than I do with a decent job. That's depressing.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

This is likely their one and only outfit but I can almost guarantee those are some durable fabrics, Dad’s clothes will still be in great condition for when their son fits them and thats one of the things people used to specifically look for when buying fabrics/clothes.

The modern world of fast fashion couldn't be more off an opposite.

[–] robocall 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is there more information available about this photo?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I really like how the dogs are counted as family members :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

There's someone behind the mother, I assume possibly carrying a baby. (Look closely at mom's feet and you can see theirs.)

Edit: That's assuming that's the mother, and not whoever is behind her. She does look pretty young.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

You're right, I completely missed that person!

[–] snekerpimp 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Look, it’s an artist’s rendition of the near future.

[–] cosmicrookie 1 points 9 months ago

AI artist

[–] x4740N 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

And right wingers would call them freeloaders and tell them to get a job

They had nowhere to go, how are they going to get a job and there are many other factors why someone cannot work

Also fuck capitalism, we should be free to live our lives and not be slaves to the capitalist system

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wonder how things were going in the USSR at this point in history. Surely everyone always had enough to eat and enjoyed freedom of movement.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Stalin was rubbing his hands together excitedly, about to send people into the meat grinder.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Better dressed than most modern people with a home and employment.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This was before fast fashion. Clothes were more expensive, but better made. You had far fewer pieces of clothing, and you'd repair them if they got worn, torn, loose seams, etc. The fact that there are five people carrying a small suitcase and a rolled-up pack between them suggests that most - if not all - of their clothes are on their backs.

[–] plofi 6 points 9 months ago

Yup, I'd take a larger suitcase on a vacation. Moving nowadays wouldn't be possible without a vehicle.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

I worked out of my 3 day old pajamas today.

It's a great time to be alive and privileged!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's OK.

In another year Daddy gets drafted and starts making money.

A year after that he gets killed in WW2.

And at the end of the war, all the Boomer children in this photo get rich and have keep all the money for themselves.......

[–] Ostrichgrif 5 points 9 months ago

Boomers were born after WWII, these kids would have been the silent generation.