Photo Essay Opinion

The Woman Behind 'Migrant Mother' and Why She Resented It

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The Woman Behind 'Migrant Mother' and Why She Resented It

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Florence Owens Thompson sat for Dorothea Lange for roughly ten minutes in a California pea field in 1936, never gave formal consent, and never earned a cent from the resulting image. For 47 years she resented it. Fstoppers runs the full story behind one of documentary photography's most reproduced and most ethically contested portraits.

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photography history documentary photography ethics Dorothea Lange

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