FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) engaged in a program that was referred to as the New Deal. According to the program, the federal government would take more roles so as to improve the citizen’s economic welfare. The economic system was exceptionally poor when Roosevelt became the president in 1933.
A majority of the state governments had taken a banking holiday, which aimed at preventing depositors from destroying the banking institutions. The banks would be ruined if depositors withdrew all their cash. Roosevelt gave all banking institutions four days for holiday. Consequently, Roosevelt pressured the Congress and obtained a legislation for reopening the banks.
The federal government certified that all banks were sound for reopening. Afterwards, there were several banking reforms. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation allowed deposits to be insured.
According to the New Deal, a larger percent of the federal government funds would be used to pay all needy citizens. Grants, as opposed to loans, would be given to the needy citizens. A number of novel agencies were initiated to ensure that the unemployed benefitted from government- sponsored jobs.
The WPA (Works Progress Administration) initiated special projects, which offered jobs to the unskilled and skilled citizens. People trained as musicians, actors, artists, and writers benefitted from such employment. The PWA (Public Works Administration) initiated projects such as construction of dams, sports centers, and highways. The young men benefitted from conservation projects since they were employed by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).
In my opinion, photographs and paintings are not simply a recording of the past. On the contrary, they are fashioned and composed descriptions, which detail the past. Dorothea Lange’s photos were constructed to give different stories. The photographs advocated for sympathy for all poor people.
Dorothea was a renowned documentary photographer in America. Particularly, she was extremely popular for the Great Depression chronicles and the photographs involving migratory farm employees. She created photographs for the FSA (Farm Security Administration), which were assessing the farm worker’s living conditions in California. A majority of the laborers had migrated to the west as an escape strategy from the Dust Bowl.
Dorothea took photographs, which depicted the depression in human lives. In 1934, Dorothea had the first show. It exhibited various issues, which were facing the government. These included breadline recipients, labor leaders, strike rallies, and political demonstrations. After presenting her photographs during the show, Dorothea got a job with the New Deal Administration.
The photographs were utilized as symbols of the White Angel Breadline migrant, which occurred in 1933 in San Francisco. Dorothea communicated the urgent need for government action to help the destitute Americans. 1939 was declared the year of a novel start.
The Florence Owens Thompson sequence of photographs had a picture of a migrant mother. Moreover, the series showed an underprivileged Californian pea picker. In another photograph, there was a migratory cotton picker from Mexico who was aged ten years. In the picture, the boy was working on the family car and was unable to attend school.
According to him, the father never allowed him to go to school since he was supposed to pick cotton. The boy picked approximately twenty five pounds of cotton every day. In my opinion, this was child labor. In essence, Dorothea’s photos and Roosevelt New Deal had a common goal; fighting for the rights of the underprivileged Americans.