I'm still shocked that the library of Congress offers free downloads of high-res negative scans of herbest images.I wonder if you would like that.But if you want your very own copy of Migrant Mother go ahead and search the bibrary of that wonderful image.original prints sell around $40k these days and they offer it for free.I have even seen some peopleselling their versions of it.
The Library of Congress has a whole series of photos that belong to the public, I bought quite a few years of ago, including Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.
In those days they were hand printed on silver gelatin paper and about $25
Any of the images taken in the "dust bowl days" hired by photographers for the government are available. One just needs to know the plate number and you can order them at will
That being the case, here are several images of early works by Dorothea Lange, signed and dated 1921. Images of these prints are surely not available elsewhere, so enjoy them while you can. The originals were found locally in Sept. 2009.
I had no idea about those LOC collections, some of them are amazing. I just got completely drawn in to the huge collection of Edward Curtis. Wow. Thanks!
Farm Security Administration documentary photography was paid for by the US taxpayers. The photographers and support personnel were employed by the US government, and thus also paid by taxpayers. That arrangement places their for-hire works into the public domain, and thus available to the public who paid for them via the Library of Congress.
But there are limits. I can download a high-resolution digital reproduction file and print my own copy. But if I were to ask the LOC to borrow the original negative for a weekend to print my own copy... ?