Her brilliant photos of the Depression made history. Did they twist it?

“Migrant Mother” is not a disinterested document, though, not in the way that viewers might understand a news image today. In 1935, Lange started working with the federal Resettlement Administration, later reorganized as the Farm Security Administration. “Migrant Mother” quickly emerged as a totem for the New Deal, evoking not just compassion for its unnamed subject but also support for the policies meant to alleviate her suffering. For a portrait artist, Lange yielded immense power, capturing the story of the Depression while also guiding the public’s perception of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s response.

WaPo presumably thinks that today that “It’s different this time”. Nope. It is still all propaganda.