Final answer:
Artists such as Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks documented the Great Depression through photographs and narratives that depicted the reality of American life, particularly among farmers and migrant workers. Their work was part of the Social Realism movement and was supported by New Deal programs such as the WPA, providing a historic and artistic record of the period's struggles.
Step-by-step explanation:
Artists such as Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, James Agee, and Walker Evans used their various mediums to tell the story of the Great Depression. They captured the lives of farmers, and migrant workers through Social Realism, an art movement that depicted the struggles and injustices of the working-class. The Farm Security Administration (FSA) sent these artists to document the suffering and resilience of Americans, creating powerful propaganda images to support the government's relief efforts.
Dorothea Lange's photographs, like the iconic 'Migrant Mother', brought the realities of poverty and displacement into public view, while Gordon Parks' images laid bare the racial disparities exacerbated by the economic collapse. Writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans worked as partners on 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men', a book that combines prose and photography to document the lives of poor sharecroppers. These works remain unparalleled in their haunting portrayal of the era. Their efforts were supported by projects like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which provided funding to employ artists and create art that not only documented social conditions but also served as a beacon of hope and resilience for a struggling nation.