Mother with her Three Children

Accession Number
2013/2.339

Title
Mother with her Three Children

Artist(s)
Danny Lyon

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1965; printed 2010

Medium & Support
gelatin silver print on paper

Dimensions
14 in x 11 in (35.56 cm x 27.94 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Thomas Wilson '79 and Jill Garling '80

Subject matter
The Uptown, Chicago series was taken in 1965, shortly before The Bikeriders. Lyon chose a single street, Clifton Street, and photographed recent migrants from Appalachia. Lyon commented that most license plates on the streets were from Kentucky and Tennessee, and the area was referred to as “hillbilly heaven.” Wishing to draw awareness to subjects that were rarely seen, he gave people in the neighborhood dollars to pose for pictures. After photographing, he often returned to give his subjects small prints, usually Rolleiflex contact prints.

Physical Description
Portrait of a woman, her two daughters and a young baby. They sit on a sofa indoors; one daughter slouches into the couch on the left, holding the baby. The mother sits in the center, and the other daughter stands on the sofa cushion to the right of her mother.

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
dresses (garments)
families (kinship groups)
girls
indoor photography
sitting
sofas
women (female humans)

17 Related Resources

Chicago
(Part of 3 Learning Collections)
Girlhood
(Part of 9 Learning Collections)
Home
(Part of 6 Learning Collections)
Mothers and Children
(Part of 10 Learning Collections)
Race, Gender, Class, and American Identity
(Part of 11 Learning Collections)
Documentary Photography & Social Realism
(Part of 9 Learning Collections)
Families
(Part of 5 Learning Collections)
Jewish Photographers 
(Part of: Ethnicity and Race)
Danny Lyon
(Part of: Modern Jewish Photography F22 - Dash Moore)

& Author Notes

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