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March 1937. "Water supply: Open settling basin from the irrigation ditch in a California squatter camp near Calipatria." Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Washday goes on, no matter that your life is falling apart.
An insight gleaned from the excellent new biography by Linda Gordon, and put into my own words:
Dorothea Lange spent the 1920s as a fashionable portrait photographer in San Francisco. When she began photographing Depression-era migrants, she continued to honor a subject's dignity and sense of worth, regardless of their physical and social situation.
Change the year of the car, and maybe some clothes, add plastic junk, et voila, it's Calipatria today.
The boy looks like he belongs in today's world. His hair is well styled and he was a clean appearance. I bet he has a cell phone in his pocket..
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