Pic Today 2/21/16

DESPAIR IN HER EYES

This is Florence Owens Thompson,

32 years old, mother of 7,

finding herself in Nipono, California (1933)

having moved west, looking for work.

It was the Great Depression. 

After driving across country,

looking for work,

her family's truck broke a timing chain,

as it  coasted into a pea-picking farm in Nipono.

There were 3,000 others camped out in Nipono,

other families looking for work.

Unfortunately,  a recent freezing rain storm

wiped out the entire pea crop.

So . . . no work.

The Farm Security Administration (FSA)

hired Dorothea Lange to photograph the 

devastation of poor farming practices

which caused the "dust bowl" and

contributed to the Great Depression.

Ms. Lange captured the "despair in her eyes"

in this now famous photograph.

(This original photograph is now on display

at the St. Louis Art Museum,

and I was allowed to take this photo

with my own camera.)

Viewing the original Dorothea Lange print

was an emotional, haunting experience.

  

(Her photographs of the "dust bowl" farming disaster

helped increase awareness of the public,

and the U.S. Congress,

implementing New Deal programs

to rescue the American economy, and

the future of sustainable agriculture in America.)