Dispossessed Arkansas farmers. These people are resettling themselves on the dump outside of Bakersfield, California 1935

Dorothea Lange took this photograph of dispossessed farmers resettling near Bakersfield, California, and you can see in her process a deep empathy for the subject. Look at the texture, that rough, makeshift shelter they’re building, or maybe it’s just trying to survive under. The light! It’s stark, unflinching. It reveals every line on the woman’s face, the weariness in her eyes, the dirt ingrained in her hands. There’s nothing soft or romantic here. It's about being real. Her hands are gripping that wooden fence so hard. It reminds me of Walker Evans, who also documented the Depression. They shared this commitment to showing the world as it was, not prettying it up. But in Lange's work, there's always this feeling of respect, a sense of shared humanity.