1930's USA

The war in America meant that wheat was in high in demand and the prices were high, much more soil was being plowed in order to keep up with the demand for wheat however In the 1930's a long drought led to farmers not being able to plant and grow crops, all of the loose soil that was left was turned into dust cloud storms that blew across whole towns and cities, the whole sky was covered with the soil and the photographers that were commissioned by Roosevelt to photograph the Dust Bowl show the dust clouds and the effects of the depression. 

Dorothea Lange

Migrant Mother Series. Woman with children in a tent. Nipomo. California. 1936

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).

This photograph is a set of five images that have been taken of a woman (Florence Owens Thompson) and her family, one of the images captions tells us that she has seven children although not all of them are in the photographs. 

An interview with Thompson tells us that she was not happy with what happened with the photographs as the information given with photographs is incorrect. 

Walker Evans

Tenant farmer family. Hale County. Alabama. 1936

Evans is a widely known photographer who has photographed a family in their home. The man and wife (Floyd and Allie Mae Burroughs) were farmers who leased their belongings from the landowners, as the depression and drought started the crops they were producing did not cover the cost of living and they slowly started getting into debt. 

The photograph shows them in one room in their house and it makes the house feel small and the family look as though they are living in poverty; this is further helped by the sad and worn out faces of the family and the clothing they are wearing.

Arthur Rothstein

In this photograph a farmer and his sons are heading for cover from one of the dust storms, they look to be heading towards a run down wooden shed which will not provide a lot of shelter from the dust; even the precautions taken by families in well kept houses did not keep the dust out. 

Within the image the landscape is baron and desolate, this is a clear representation of many farms across the southern plains of America and it is a photograph many would relate too at the time.