Migrant Mother Photoshop Edits

About

Migrant Mother Photoshop Edits refers to multiple photoshopped versions of a photograph titled "Migrant Mother," originally taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936. The photo depicts a woman named Florence Owens Thompson whose image of her with her two children has become a symbol of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl within American textbooks. Photoshopped versions of the image replacing or editing her face have circulated online as early as 2008, however, in October 2021, the exploitable became more prevalent across Reddit and Twitter.

Origin

Around mid-2008, Migrant Mother began seeing various Photoshop edits online, though many of these sites are no longer active.^[10] In the following years, the image continued to see use online where the face of Florence Owens Thompson was swapped for humorous purposes. One such example was posted on October 8th, 2010, by Know Your Meme^[1] user ArtRoflmao, who uploaded an early example of a photoshopped image of Migrant Mother. The image (shown below) was photoshopped in the face of Cigar Guy. The original creator is unknown.

Spread

More photoshops of Migrant Mother appeared in 2013 and 2014. On January 10th, 2013, Imgur ^[2] user
KILLTHEMWITHKINDNESS uploaded an edit with the face of Conan O'Brien. The image (shown below) received roughly 1,700 views and 13 upvotes over the course of six months. The image was also posted to Reddit's /r/funny^[3] on the same day by u/freeaccount. The image received roughly 1,300 upvotes over the course of six months.

In September 2014, photographer Sandro Miller^[4] collaborated with actor John Malkovich to recreate iconic American photographs. One of them was a recreation of the Migrant Mother image (shown below).

Another photoshopped image of the Migrant Mother was created on March 11th, 2016, posted to Imgur.^[5] The image used the face of the Angry Splash Mountain Lady.

In April 2017, sparked from the buzz around Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Ad, Twitter^[6] user @MarisaKabas posted a photoshopped version with Kendall Jenner's face as the Migrant Mother's. The tweet received roughly 1,000 likes over the course of five years.

On October 6th, 2021, Twitter^[7] user @SenorBrusel tweeted a low-quality version of the photograph with the caption, "thinking abt when i jerked off to this picture in 8th grade." The tweet (shown below, left) received roughly 7,600 likes over the course of five days. Either inspired by the previous tweet or not, on October 7th, 2021, Twitter^[8] user @DrSweety303 tweeted a photoshopped image of the Migrant Mother to be smiling and attractive. The tweet (shown below, right) received roughly 19,100 likes over the course of four days. @DrSweety303 mentioned in the tweet that they found it on Reddit that day, however, this Reddit source is currently unknown.

More photoshopped versions of Migrant Mother appeared on Twitter^[9] in the days following, including one of Lois Griffin from Family Guy's face on Thompson's body.

Various Examples

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External References