By the time Dorothea Lange began photographing migrant workers for New Deal agencies, the United States had been struggling under the effects of the Great Depression for the better part of a decade. During the five years she traveled around California, the Southwest, and the South, Lange captured images that documented the immense suffering caused by long-term unemployment and displacement. Although her work emphasized the struggles of Americans who had been forced into a hardscrabble existence, it is also evident from Lange’s photographs that these were people who refused to surrender to despair. In portraying the complexities and tensions of her subjects’ lives, Lange humanized the Great Depression for her contemporaries and thus prompted Americans to consider what could be done for those in need. Nearly a century later, Lange’s work serves as a testament to the difficulties that defined the lives of millions of Americans even as the nation embraced a new commitment to communal action to help them overcome their circumstances.

Articles of Virtu is an ongoing project that explores the intimate relationship between the people of the American Midwest and the cars they own. Capturing the individuals, the land in which they live, and the interiors of their homes and garages, this series aims to showcase the unique identity and culture shaped by the automobile.

Old and young, the people I photograph all have thoughts and ideas about what will come of their lives and the things they own. The amount of time I spend with each person varies. It can be short, long, or over multiple encounters that span years. Conversations around legacy always unfold, and in doing so, just before we part ways, they always end with a goal of some sort, whether to fix the motor of the abandoned Riviera or possibly touch up the chipped paint. They take a small pause, look over the car one more time, and say, “Maybe one day.” We go our separate ways, the car is covered back up, and the only thing that changes is the sun’s position in the sky.