Dorothea Lange’s White Angel Breadline (1933)

The image, titled “White Angel Breadline” by Dorothea Lange, depicts San Francisco, California, United States of America in 1933, wherein a man stands leaning on a wooden fence or barrier surrounded by a large crowd of men. This man is alone facing away from the crowd and his hands are braced around an empty tin can.

Stuart Hall (1997) outlined the “constructionist approach” of linguistics – things do not “mean” but rather one “constructs” this meaning through “representational systems like signs, symbols, and concepts. Hall walks through Ferdinand De Saussure’s theory of meaning which encompasses two elements of an image – the “signifier”, indicating the form or actual manifestation of something, and the signified, which is an imagined concept that is triggered or associated by the form.

Using this approach, I will analyse, or decode, the image shown above for its hidden messages and significance.

To begin with, the overall “representational meta function” of the image follows a narrative structure, where the viewer can create a story based on many telling factors, or “vectors of motion”, held within the image (Harrison, 2003). There are many elements that can be touched upon to create a story. The empty tin can itself contributes greatly to the narrative formation, indicating a lack of food and necessity. The hat worn with time and ragged clothing stand out from the crowd, which is filled with men dressed in an otherwise more put-together and cleaner garb, also points to poverty, unemployment, and a lower social standing. The man’s clasped hands point to a desperation or anxiety, his posture with his back to the general crowd also adds to this feeling.

His gaze, which is shielded by his hat and is turned down to something outside the frame also portrays anxiety and helplessness, a sort of resignation. This performs an “interpersonal meta function”, a system, says Harrison, that details the connection between the viewer and the subject. Alongside his gaze, the composition of the subject – from the waist up and the existence of the barrier between the man and the lens – tells towards this metafunction as well. A “far personal distance” is created where the viewer sympathises with the imagined emotions of the man and yet the physical signifier of the barrier of the fence also acts metaphorically to emphasise the distance between the viewer and them as “one of them” rather than “one of us”.

The “compositional metafunction”, which deals with the placement of the subject and its effect on meaning, is also seen through the picturing of the barrier that divides him from us. Furthermore, the man’s placement as the central focal point permits him to become the “nucleus of information” – the empty tin can and tattered hat and clothing symbolizing poverty, the clasped hands desperation, the down-turned gaze resignation or depression. But the subject is also in the bottom of the image, with most of the image being housed by the rest of the men and yet he remains the central part. This showcases a “salience” that is higher and establishes a “greater connection”.

The “power” of an image does not solely rely on the messages put into it by the producer but is enhanced by the “pre-existent values and cognition” that one has and which in turn plays a major role in how the image is received and interpreted (Domke et al., 2002). The era in which the picture was taken, 1933, was referred to as the Great Depression – a major stock market crash that left millions of people unemployed, below poverty line, homeless, and vagrant. The subject and his pose are received sharper in the viewer’s mind upon their understanding of this knowledge. Also, the black-and-white nature also indicates its time-period, and further enhances the feeling of desperation, bleakness, loneliness, and other vacant emotions associated with the Great Depression. The title also references the “White Angel Jungle” charity soup kitchen that was run by Lois Jordan and stands as a testament to the crisis that the world faced.

In conclusion, the above image is brimming with meaning, and all its attributes incite in the viewer feelings of sympathy for the struggling man, understanding of the cultural and historical context, and an appreciation for detail.



 
Bibliography
• Domke, D., Perlmutter, D. and Spratt, M. (2002) ‘The primes of our times?’, Journalism, 3(2), pp. 133–147. doi:10.1177/146488490200300211.
• Hall, S. (1997) ‘The Work of Representation’, in Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Bonhill Street, London: Sage Publications, pp. 25–31. Available at: https://eclass.aueb.gr/modules/document/file.php/OIK260/S.Hall%2C%20The%20work%20of%20Representation.pdf#page=14.02 (Accessed: 21 April 2025).
• Harrison, C. (2003) ‘Visual Social Semiotics: Understanding How Still Images Make Meaning’, Technical Communication, 50(1), pp. 51–58. doi:https://www.jstor.org/stable/43090531.

Photograph
• Lange, D. (2019) White Angel Breadline, Princeton University Art Museum. California. Available at: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/135245 (Accessed: 21 April 2025).