It is a photo of Florence Owens Thompson and her children taken by one Dorothea Lange of the Farm Security Administration documentary. The migrant mother photograph as has become popularly known has been a perfect representation of the untold suffering of the average working American class that lived in the period of The Great Depression. The photo artist brings viewers of the photograph to the personal space of the subject of the picture Florence Thompson and her children. This enables the photo artist to highlight an issue of great concern in the society and one that needs immediate action. It underlines the plight of the poor migrant farm servants.
When considering ethical issues in the pursuit of photojournalism, the question of the subject’s right to privacy versus the need to enlighten the society about the issues that need to be addressed in the community always arises. While trying to address this particular ethical questions, the NPPA code of ethics for photojournalism ethical standards should be consulted. While guidelines provide may be open to different opinions and interpretations. The NPPA Code of Ethics provides a standard framework to be observed when addressing the fundamental issue of privacy versus the need for public knowledge and information. The Migrant Mother was however taken before the introduction of the NPPA code of ethics in journalism.
When viewing the photograph in the modern era, one would be forgiven for thinking the NPPA Code of Ethics was broken when the picture was taken. But in my view, the message that the photojournalist wanted to relay was substantially anchored on the subjects of the photograph. The photo illustrated societal problem while employing empathy on the viewers and leaders that be to take action against the problems in the society. The photojournalist while giving her version of the photograph said as she looked at Thompson family and thought how best they could benefit from her taking the picture. While in the end Dorothea ends up benefitting from the photograph by highlighting the plight of the destitute family.
The NPPA code of ethics provides a base for the discussion of ethical concerns in the image the migrant mother, the code of ethics helps us analyze the message Dorothea tried to pass against the violations to tenets 1, 3 and 6 of the ethical conduct in photojournalism. While Dorothea is very careful and selective in the presentation and composition of the photograph, she can reveal Thompson's personal space simultaneously and at the same time highlight an issue in the society that require attention. While she crafts her message, she illustrates a typical ethical tension in the field of photojournalism.
Dorothea Lange as a photographer in the documentaries series did a perfect job of highlighting the plight of the poor migrants in the 1930s. The act of taking of those photographs was justified for Lange as she did what she thought was the best thing to do for all poor migrants across the country. The Code of Ethics offers ambiguous bracket guidelines which most of the times are open for various interpretations. Dorothea chooses to effect change in the society both politically and socially.
The photograph can be mistaken to be ethnically stereotypical. It can be interpreted as a picture that is meant to show that migrants are poor and have large families. The absence of a father can be interpreted to mean that the migrant families did not value family values. The Migrant Mother has a very important message to the society. It was not composed to represent cultural stereotype instead it was made to document the history. It was composed to tell a story of the Great Depression. The Migrant Mother is a perfect representation of the great suffering families went through during the period. Dorothea was known for composing beautiful portraits in studios but during the Great Depression period, she thought of how she could tell a story, how she could help effect changes in the society. She embarked on a mission to tell stories of the depression using photographs. For a long time now pictures have contributed to understanding the different periods of suffering and good fortunes alike. Photographs have helped track history and the Migrant mother is one such photograph. The intentions of the photojournalist were purely ethical in my consideration.
While discussing the ethical issue of intent we tend to argue that good intent justifies the method. The photograph of the migrant mother does not represent an actual migrant worker; it is a picture of a mother who is sidetracked to a migrant worker’s camp. The photograph nevertheless represented the needs of the society then, and it served as the constant propaganda required to initiate action. The iconic photo raised a series socio-political re-examination across the United States in the period of the Great Depression.
Some argue that the message portrayed by the picture was tailored to suit the circumstances. If this were true, then the code of Ethics has been severely violated. While from those arguments one would wonder if then impacts of that photograph should be written off as a result of lacking to follow the outlined code of ethics. I argue to disagree sometimes the tension built from the ethical issues is substantial but if a message can be passed in the process, a message that would help rejuvenate a conversation about a major issue in the society then we should undermine the power of pictures. Lange did not in any way distort the content of the images she took, at the migrant mother photo shoot. The subjects were migrants and poor. Lange choose illustrates the context of the subject in the picture while she ignored the nature of the subject. On her part that was excellent professionalism as that was what her job required of her. It is not unethical to use the context of the subjects when taking photographs as long as the full representation of the context is given without bias. This particular analogy made the migrant family very annoyed by the photo that eventual become too famous and helped elevate the problems of the Great Depression.
Dorothea was a strict follower of the rules and as such she behaved in the most ethical manner when she finally released the photographs to the public. The photographs as is ethically required did not have names of the subjects. Her notes too were morally prepared and showed discretion.
Finally, as the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand word, but what should happen when the image lies? Just like writers and original producers, a photojournalist is also held to an absolute standard. There have been a lot of stories about the migrant mother photograph many of them rising fundamental question about ethics and professionalism. Dorothea Lange, in my opinion, observed the top high levels of professionalism in both composition and release of the images of the migrant mother. Considering the images were taken and composed before the NPPA code of ethics was published the message of the pictures was both ethical and professional.
Works cited
Sontag, Susan. "Regarding The Torture Of Others". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2004. Web. 4 May 2016.
Jentleson, Katherine. "Chapter Entry: The Misrecognition Of Migrant Mother | VMS 590S-01 Fall 2012 Class Site: Performing Gender Exhibiting Race". Sites.duke.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 4 May 2016.
"The Most Curious Thing". Errol Morris Blog. N.p., 2016. Web. 4 May 2016.
"NPPA Code Of Ethics | NPPA". Nppa.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 4 May 2016.
