Artists supporting my Concept.

After my Body Tutorial a couple of weeks ago i have been researching artists to try and finalise my idea/concept. Below are a couple of artists which have influenced my shoot, i will then go into further detail about my Concept.

Dorothea Lange 

Migrant mother, Nipomo, California (1936) Dorothea Lange

Migrant mother (alternative), Nipomo, California, (1936) Dorothea Lange

These two photo's are part of the 'Migrant Mother' series, the top image is also one of Lange's most famous photographs. These images were taken in the American Depression. By 1929 nearly eight million people in farm areas lived on the edge of subsistence. Farmers and sharecroppers were known to get hit the hardest, who worked land they did not own.

As the depression continued many people were forced to leave leave their holdings and move around the country searching for migrant work of any sort. In the 1920's Lange had been a successful portrait photographer, but faced with the depression she had began to record the unemployed and migrant workers drawn to the west by the illusory promise of work.

These photo's are an example of the hardships the mother is going through. The top image is specifically known due to the history of the Depression. The mother is looking away from the camera while her children rest on her, she is clutching a baby on her lap, with the expression she is giving she comes across as worried and scared. The young children looking away from the camera gives the image a sense of vulnerability, in this photo the children's faces are hidden which makes the mother the main focal point. Dirty and ripped clothes gives the viewer a image of the hardships this woman may be going through, it's as if the mother is looking at the struggles that lay ahead, trying to seek out the answers to her questions for her children's sake and future. When being a mother the focus of your life changes dramatically, the importance is now in your children. 

The second image is also a representative of the Depression and the hardships of the mother. Clutching her baby to her chest she looks away from the camera. Her facial expression seems to give this image a sadness that overwhelms the viewer when seeing the photo. 

The camera isn't as close as before which allows us to view her clothes and surroundings more easiy. These two photos really represent the hardships of what family's were going through at the time and are still a reminder to this day.

A Mother and her two children on the road, Tulelake, Siskiyou
County, California (1939) Dorothea Lange

This image is similar to Lange's Migrant Mothers, however the children are looking into the camera. The hardships are still captured on camera making it obvious with the messy windswept hair and dirt ridden clothes that things were not easy. The young boy sitting higher from his mother seems to be bare legged and footed. The low camera angle helps include parts of the background and her surroundings making it easier to see she is seated in a car with her children. The Three do not look anywhere near happy or hopeful of the future. I really like the composition of Lange's photos, a simple way of including her subjects with great detail in each photograph capturing this hard moment in time.

John Vachon

Children of farmer in the Ozarks, Missouri, (1940) John Vachon

I have chosen this image for the representation of the children, the similar look in the eyes of the children as to the other images i have chosen.The main focus is of the two on the right and the young baby in the arms of the child. She/he seems to be smiling but it looks as if it is a forced smile. The other children in the photograph, all in which have also been squeezed into the gap of the doorway are straight faced, a glum look upon them all. Close detail can be seen of the filthy feet, also the face of the young boy on the left is is incredibly dirty. The camera angle being the same height as the children keeps them the main focus of the image, no distractions of the background can be seen. This photo was taken a similar time as Lange's, during the Depression. The sternness and seriousness of the children suspect that they too find the times difficult.

Rineke Dijkstra

This image is one that i would never normally choose represent my idea, however i wanted to expand my research. Looking at this image Dijkstra has chosen to photograph this mother after given birth, the harness of the image gives the viewer an instant shock of the deliberate nudity. There is a slight trial of blood that runs done her leg, her baby clutched in her arms all suggest and represents the battle of motherhood to come. This mothers future is now her young child who's future is dependant on its mum.

'In the mid-90s Dijkstra photographed three women after they'd given birth. One was photographed an hour after giving birth, another photographed one day afterwards, and the third one week later. The aesthetic is the same: a single subject centered in a neutral frame. Here, though, Dijkstra is depicting the organic reality of birthing.
Traditionally, art has treated the birth process with more sympathy and adoration than honesty. Dijkstra shows the effects of pregnancy and birth on the body. She does it with empathy and restrained affection, but with a frank and candid eye. Pregnancy and birth aren't easy on the body. The beauty of motherhood is there, but it's not glamorised.'

My Concept/Idea
After researching properly and into more detail of Dorothea Lange's photos i have found that she truly influences my project and is the perfect way to portray my idea. I have managed to find a model who is a mother herself, for the shoot she had given me a particular time of day she could come into the studio as part of her daily routine is full of schedules and times. 
She's aged twenty six a married mother of three children and also works full time, i wanted to capture the hardships she has come across after becoming a mother. I will be photographing her and her youngest daughter. I want to capture the youngest being nearly two years old as the focus leaving Elaine my model in the background. I have never met Elaine before this project she is a stranger to me, living in Rochester she works in London along side my Dad who thought of her when i described my idea.
         The importance of motherhood is crucial and needs to be in the photo, but the child is the main focus. I would like to entertain the young child but not to the point of smiles, i need the mother to look stern and strong but in a way naturally rough. I need an exhaustion to shine through to enable it to become similar to Lange's photos. This may not be a Depression at the is moment in time but other struggles in parenthood come forward in any family, and it is this that i am trying to focus on.


Information from book named 'American Photographers of the Depression' - Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and the FSA Photographers (Charles Hagen, Thames and Hudson)