There is an apostrophe missing in the commentator's first line, in addition to the other apostrophe errors pointed out by Shorpy. The commentator writes "this womans life" which should, of course, be "this woman's life." Grammar aside, great thanks for giving this image and so many others a new life through this wonderful hundred year old blog. This is my new favorite site. I know I'll spend hours looking around in the corners here. Thank you.

Reading the attached links info gave an incredible perspective to this womans life and make's me think of how one seemingly insignificant thing like your car breaking down can change one's life... She is not living in a tent camp (at least not when the picture was taken), i'm sure the kid's are hungry, but not b/c of the reason's one would think.

Shorpy's reply: First, in defense of the poor overworked apostrophe, the plural of "kid" is kids, the plural of "reason" is reasons, it's "makes me think," not "make's me think." Second: It was a tent camp, according to Geoffrey Dunn's account of how Dorothea Lange came to take this picture:

At Nipomo, "like a homing pigeon," she turns onto a muddy road and discovers a sprawling, squalid campsite of nearly 2,500 migrant farm workers battling starvation and the elements. They had been lured to the camp by newspaper advertisements promising work in the pea fields, only to be left stranded when protracted, late-winter rains destroyed the crop.

Almost spontaneously, Lange zeros in on a woman and a handful of children huddled in a tattered, lean-to tent ...

Even from that distance, the first thing I thought was "Is that the same woman from 'Migrant Mother'?" I'm glad we know who she is now.