Dorothea Lange

When I was reading the textbook there was a comment regarding Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photograph and that John David Viera questioned the loss of privacy of the people in Lange's photographs (206). Apparently he wasn't familiar with Lange's comments on taking Migrant Mother:

"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, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it." (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).

Lange also apparently alerted a San Francisco newspaper and government about conditions at the camp where the migrant mother and her family were, and the result was 20,000 pounds of food being delivered to the camp.

Lange was paid by the US Government to take these photographs precisely so that these people were not forgotten in their poverty. They were works made for hire, so I doubt Lange benefitted monetarily from them beyond her salary. I really don't have time to see who has the copyright to these photographs, but one of the reasons Migrant Mother is such a common image may have to do with its publication not being restricted, not Lange and others like her trying to make a buck off of these people. I

Another similar photograph is the Afghan girl with the green eyes that Steve McCurry took. The girl gave permission for him to take her photograph and was apparently oblivious that her face became such an icon for that situation until she was contacted a few years ago. She allowed a female photographer to take your photo a second time and is reported that she was pleased that her first photograph symbolized her people. According to http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0311_020312_sharbat_2.html, she is being financially "looked after" and money from proceeds of her photograph is being used to assist in the development and delivery of educational opportunities for young Afghan women and girls. Sharbat Gula has returned to purdah; how is this an invasion of privacy?