Migrant Mother: Florence Owens Thompson, Dorothea Lange, 1936
This image is taken from slightly above the subject, this means that we are likely to react to this image in a certain way. When we look at images that are looking down from a higher viewpoint than the subject, we tend we feel sorry for the subject. The way in which the subjects in this image are facing adds to the message that they are facing troubles. It is as if the two children are facing away from something that is troubling the mother, or completely oblivious.
Look more carefully at the composition. The children are all facing into the picture frame which indicates that the composition is closed. The mother faces out of the frame which might suggest that the composition is open, that there is something beyond the frame in the picture's "blind field" as Bazin puts it. However, the fact that she seems to be staring into space, not actually looking at anything beyond the picture frame also makes the composition closed. The closed composition cuts the subjects off from the world, their suffering is hermetically sealed within the frame and cannot touch the viewer. Look at how many other images of suffering also have closed compositions. Why do you think this is? Read "Camera Lucida" by Roland Barthes.
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