MoMA, Lange, and the Joads

By: Evan Trout 

The timeless impact of Dorothea Lange’s images drew me in when I visited the MoMA this week. Two striking and captivating pieces, “Mother and Child, San Francisco 1952” and “Man Stepping from Cable Car, San Francisco 1956” are displayed there. Even while these pictures are not directly related to the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, which Steinbeck effectively depicted in “The Grapes of Wrath,” they still have a strong emotional connection to the themes of uprooting, perseverance, and the human cost of adversity.

Dorothea Lange captured the thin features, dirty hands, and relentless effort of the Depression era in her famous images. Although the current works of hers at the MoMA don’t capture those particular years, the themes within her work remain the same. When looking at “Mother and Child, San Francisco 1952”, I see not only a portrait but history within the shadows. I personally reflected on Ma Joad’s constant strength, the unspoken need to keep trying, to find a way. The stance of the mother and child, convey so much about the human spirit, and the drive to survive, even when facing unbelievable odds, is so moving.

With its feeling of urban isolation, “Man Stepping from Cable Car, San Francisco 1956” connects to the larger issue of displacement that underlines both Lange’s writing and “The Grapes of Wrath.” Essentially, the Joads’ journey is a desperate struggle to find security in a world that has turned against them and their search for a place to belong. The man in the photo, in a state of movement, I believe seems like Tom Joad, an isolated individual in a huge, heartless environment. In our own time of fast change and growth in cities, the man’s loneliness and sense of being lost in a big city are still very relevant today. It reminded me that this feeling of isolation is not exclusive to any one time period.

Like Steinbeck’s writing, Lange’s photographs compelled the American public to face the realities of poverty and injustice, to see the humanity that exists below the filth and the desperation. Their art became a way to create change, raise social awareness, and to start a sense of collective responsibility. Lange and Steinbeck both transformed the facts by giving faces and voices to the anonymous, making the suffering of the time apparent and unquestionable.

While it is easy to view history through the lens of information and textbooks, Lange, like Steinbeck, reminds us that history is made up of individual lives, of regular people caught in unique circumstances, and that their stories, faces, and resilience still have an impact decades later. Their art also continues to inspire compassion and educate, reminding us of the significance of understanding the everyday human experience.

I come away from this experience with a fresh sense of empathy because Steinbeck’s words and Lange’s images compelled me to face the disturbing facts of human suffering, emphasizing our shared humanity. I think the most crucial lesson of all is to see the world from other people's perspectives, to appreciate the worth of every human story, and to work toward a world free from suffering.