Request to view

This object can be requested via email from the Prints & Drawings Study Room

Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Tractored Out

Photograph
1938 (made)
Artist/Maker
Lange (artist)
Place of origin
Texas (photographed)

Photograph (silver print)

Object details

Categories
Photographs
Poverty
Agriculture
Object type
Photograph
TitleTractored Out (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
photographic paper, silver print
Photographic Paper
Silver Print
Photography
Brief description
Photograph (silver print) by Lange DorotheaL 'Tractored Out' power farming displaces tenant's Childress County, Texas, 1938
Physical description
Photograph (silver print)
Dimensions
    Marks and inscriptions
    • Power farming displaces tenants, Childress, Tex. June 1938, D. lange, photo. 59860/US734-18281 (Inscribed on back in pencil)
    • Reproduced from the collection of the Library of Congress (Stamped on back)
    Gallery label
    (06 03 2014)
    Gallery 100 ‘A History of Photography’, 2014-2015, label text:

    Dorothea Lange (1895–1965)
    ‘Former Texas Tenant Farmers Displaced by Power Farming’
    1938, printed 1970s

    In the 1930s, the American government’s Farm Security Administration commissioned Lange and several of her contemporaries to document the lives of rural workers living in communities affected by the economic depression. The hardship endured by sharecroppers, migrant workers and displaced families was brought to public attention when Lange’s powerful and emotive photographs were published in free newspapers across America.

    Gelatin silver prints
    Museum no. Circ.339-1973
    Credit line
    Acquired from the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. in 1973
    Object history
    Along with photographers such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange worked for the American government’s Farm Security Administration programme during the Great Depression of the 1930's. The F.S.A. was set up to relieve poverty in rural areas but also involved photographing conditions faced by displaced farmers who had been hit by the Depression and by drought. Lange’s Californian Migrant Mother is one of the most widely known of all photographs; the tightly composed, highly concentrated composition has made it an icon of socially committed photography.
    Places depicted
    Texas
    USA
    Associations
    Texas
    USA
    Bibliographic reference
    Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1973
    Collection
    Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
    Accession number
    CIRC.339-1973

    About this object record

    Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

    You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

    Suggest feedback

    Record createdJuly 1, 2009
    Record URL
    https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1102103/tractored-out-photograph-lange/
    Download as: JSON