Mary Daniels with her Children, Republic Steel (Working People series) 1979

Milton Rogovin made this black and white photograph, Mary Daniels with her Children, as part of his ‘Working People’ series. I see a woman and three kids posing around a table, under an ornate light fixture. There’s a decorative curtain behind them, and the black and white tones give a sense of starkness, of recording a moment in time. You can tell Rogovin was interested in the everyday. I imagine him carefully composing each shot, thinking about how to frame the subjects against their environments, capturing the dignity and the weariness of working-class life. He used light to reveal details in the textures of the room and faces. The kids are all at different angles, leaning on their hands. Maybe he asked them to do this? What was he thinking when he decided to include that lion print on the wall? Rogovin’s project connects with other photographers interested in portraiture and social documentation like Dorothea Lange. Through his work, like theirs, we see and come to appreciate the diverse experiences of people in a particular time and place.