Washington, Yakima Valley, near Wapato. One of Chris Adolph's younger children. Farm Security Administration Rehabilitation clients after 1939

Curator: Dorothea Lange's photograph captures a moment in the lives of the Adolph family, Farm Security Administration rehabilitation clients in Yakima Valley. Editor: There's a palpable weight in the girl's gaze as she grips that wire. It's an image of childhood burdened by circumstance. Curator: Lange's work highlights the material conditions of migrant workers. Consider the contrast between the girl's floral dress and the harshness of the landscape and barbed wire. Editor: The barbed wire itself is a potent symbol – a boundary, a restriction. It speaks volumes about the limited prospects these families faced during the Depression. Curator: Absolutely. It underscores how the seemingly simple act of making a photograph becomes an act of bearing witness to social and economic realities. The print itself carries a history of labor and resilience. Editor: I see it as a visual elegy, a study in resilience etched in a young girl's face. Curator: It certainly offers a poignant look into the past. Editor: A past, yes, that still informs the present.