Lewis Hine

by Mary Panzer

LEWIS HINE (1874-1940) took up photo-graphy to call attention to social injustice and to campaign for change. This respect for the exploited and oppressed individual established him as an embodiment of American values. His images celebrated the dignity of working people in the modern world and gave a voice to the ordinary men, women and children who did not, or could not, speak for themselves.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2002

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 3rd book I have read now on Lewis Hine’s work. His photography is so perfect at the portrayal of everyday life in a factory, tenement, coal mine ... whatever.

*** read for summer reading program “ local history”.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Perhaps you are weary of child labour pictures. Well, so are the rest of us, but we propose to make you so sick and tired of the whole business that when the time for action comes, child labour pictures will be records of the past.”

“While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph.”

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lewis Hine (1974-1940) photographed people with a serious purpose. He wanted to motivate the viewer toward social reform. He took many now famous photos of children laboring in factories that helped created labor laws prohibiting children from work.


Now I'm going to put myself on a limb and be called a bad person. While I am glad that there are laws protecting children from exploitation and indeed all people from slave labor wages, the issue was not so cut and dry.


Many families needed every consumer of food in their house working so there would be enough food for everyone. The evil practices by share croppers that purposely caused people to work themselves into debt needed to be abolished and those plantation owners needed to go to jail.


But at the same time, safe, viable wages needed to be provided for families. Many families desperately needed everyone to work to afford basic life necessities. When laws were implemented that prevented children under the age of fourteen to work, many families found that their life became more harsh, not less because fewer wages meant less food for everyone.


I'm not advocating child labor, I'm only pointing out that sometimes things aren't so simple. Children today certainly aren't in the same kind of danger, working with machinery or in a deprived environment but are their lives less busy, going to before-school daycare, school for eight hours, after-school daycare, then whatever sports or activities they're enrolled in, homework, going to bed exhausted, seeing their parents for only a couple of hours a day?


And history shows that while new immigrant families lived under these hard conditions, their children did not continue in them. They were able to better themselves, get a good education and achieve professional careers-in only one generation. This was before the welfare state created the deplorable cycle of generational poverty that is now afflicting our country.


As Hines saw living conditions improve over the years he moved on to document war torn Europe.

[Jade-Imogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewis Hine is incredible. His photos are haunting, beautiful and powerful. This is a photographer with a voice, one that will never be forgotten, these pictures changed laws.