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Lewis W. Hine: America at Work
Photographer, teacher, and sociologist Lewis W. Hine (1874–1940) shaped our consciousness of American working life in the early 20th century like no other. Combining his training as an educator with his humanist concerns, Hine was one of the earliest photographers to use the camera as a documentary tool, capturing in particular labor conditions, housing, and immigrants arriving on Ellis Island. His images, including those of children in cotton mills, factories, coal mines, and fields, became icons of photographic history that helped to transform labor laws in the United States.
This book brings together a representative collection of Lewis W. Hine’s photography from all periods of his work. It spans his earliest forays into social-documentary work through to his more artistic and interpretative late photographs, including his phenomenal images of the construction of the Empire State Building and his symbiotic staging of human and machine as a comment on increasing industrialization. Alongside the near 350 photographs, the book includes an essay by the editor, introducing Hine’s life and pioneering work.
About the series
Bibliotheca Universalis ― Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!
This book brings together a representative collection of Lewis W. Hine’s photography from all periods of his work. It spans his earliest forays into social-documentary work through to his more artistic and interpretative late photographs, including his phenomenal images of the construction of the Empire State Building and his symbiotic staging of human and machine as a comment on increasing industrialization. Alongside the near 350 photographs, the book includes an essay by the editor, introducing Hine’s life and pioneering work.
About the series
Bibliotheca Universalis ― Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!
- GenresPhotographyHistoryArt
537 pages, Hardcover
Published November 24, 2018
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50 people want to read
About the author
Peter Walther
21 books3 followersPeter Walther is a German scholar and literary historian.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 8, 2024
This is an impressive book in its scope, subject matter and the all-round quality of the photography. It sucks that Lewis Hine couldn't make enough money to support himself towards the end of his life because the value of this work clearly surpasses whatever financial worth was put on it at the time.
Hine travelled most of the United States to capture scenes of child labor. He shows 5-year-olds starting work before dawn shucking oysters, children working in cotton fields and mills, toddlers picking cranberries in bogs (a 2-year-old constantly falling asleep on the job), newsies on the streets of various cities working late at night. Child labor was so widespread this work also gives a detailled picture of what life looked like back then. There's no plastic anywhere and no obesity (maybe one chubby person in over 500 pages). I think I spotted a phone in one photo. The child labor photos are from the 1900s and 1910s and every single person is dressed formally. Little girls in cotton mills wear big bows in their hair and sometimes even don elaborate hats. Even if the kids are barefoot and in rags, they still tend to wear an entire outfit of layers of clothes plus hat.
Another thing that struck me was the near absence of non white Americans. I suspect that because the child labor photos were intended as material in campaigns for the abolition of this practice, the focus was on white kids to appeal to a white audience. The previous photography book I read was about Lisette Model's work and whenever she took pictures of black people (like dance pioneer Pearl Primus), the magazine she worked for would not publish them. There were no written rules about this but there was a systematic refusal because the white middle class audience of the magazine supposedly would not want to see anyone who wasn't white. I don't get that reasoning but I suspect that's what's going on here.
After the child labor series, Hine went to Europe to photograph refugees and injured soldiers during and after the First World War. There's a picture of a French soldier who lost both his arms at the elbow, writing a letter with his robotlike prosthetics. I believe this is the war where plastic surgery first made huge strides and it struck me how effective the robot arms looked.
Hine also documented the construction of the Empire State Building. Again, how did these people survive without any visible safety measures (?!). There were plenty of pictures of young kids who'd been working in mills until their fingers got cut off. The construction workers all seem fine but it still boggles the mind. As does the fact that these huge skyscrapers were put up in the thirties or before; it brings to mind the construction of cathedrals in Europe.
This book is something to behold. It's not in a big format but the photos are impressive nonetheless. Besides being transported back to the past I also wondered at times if this isn't the future of the U.S. I was also looking at: a country where corporations hold all the power and individuals have none. Where most people scrape by while a few robber barons live in riches thanks to their exploitation of everyone else.
Hine travelled most of the United States to capture scenes of child labor. He shows 5-year-olds starting work before dawn shucking oysters, children working in cotton fields and mills, toddlers picking cranberries in bogs (a 2-year-old constantly falling asleep on the job), newsies on the streets of various cities working late at night. Child labor was so widespread this work also gives a detailled picture of what life looked like back then. There's no plastic anywhere and no obesity (maybe one chubby person in over 500 pages). I think I spotted a phone in one photo. The child labor photos are from the 1900s and 1910s and every single person is dressed formally. Little girls in cotton mills wear big bows in their hair and sometimes even don elaborate hats. Even if the kids are barefoot and in rags, they still tend to wear an entire outfit of layers of clothes plus hat.
Another thing that struck me was the near absence of non white Americans. I suspect that because the child labor photos were intended as material in campaigns for the abolition of this practice, the focus was on white kids to appeal to a white audience. The previous photography book I read was about Lisette Model's work and whenever she took pictures of black people (like dance pioneer Pearl Primus), the magazine she worked for would not publish them. There were no written rules about this but there was a systematic refusal because the white middle class audience of the magazine supposedly would not want to see anyone who wasn't white. I don't get that reasoning but I suspect that's what's going on here.
After the child labor series, Hine went to Europe to photograph refugees and injured soldiers during and after the First World War. There's a picture of a French soldier who lost both his arms at the elbow, writing a letter with his robotlike prosthetics. I believe this is the war where plastic surgery first made huge strides and it struck me how effective the robot arms looked.
Hine also documented the construction of the Empire State Building. Again, how did these people survive without any visible safety measures (?!). There were plenty of pictures of young kids who'd been working in mills until their fingers got cut off. The construction workers all seem fine but it still boggles the mind. As does the fact that these huge skyscrapers were put up in the thirties or before; it brings to mind the construction of cathedrals in Europe.
This book is something to behold. It's not in a big format but the photos are impressive nonetheless. Besides being transported back to the past I also wondered at times if this isn't the future of the U.S. I was also looking at: a country where corporations hold all the power and individuals have none. Where most people scrape by while a few robber barons live in riches thanks to their exploitation of everyone else.
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January 9, 2025I had a fixation on construction photos of the Empire State Building. Lewis W. Hine was one of the men who photographed the process so I was immediately drawn to this book. Mauling over every photograph with a lot of attention. Besides the jaw dropping pictures of the building I got a history lesson into the turn of the century in America. The children workforces, the daily lives of men and women, immigrants, war veterans, all done through the eye of a very sensitive man with the need to educate people.
January 24, 2021
I don't live in America and it's such a nice thing to see how was it to be a part of that time. On the other side, you can see a lot of pictures that tells all sadness of that time. In short, this book has a great value in terms of history and I would recomend it to everyone who likes history and photography.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews