My inspiration will be Lewis Hine, a photographer whose work emphasized revealing the exploitation of workers in America.

WHO WAS LEWIS HINE?

  • Trained sociologist who became photographer around 1905
  • Worked for National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) 1908-1918
  • Philosophy: “If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug a camera”
  • Believed photography could expose injustice and drive social change
  • Career focus: Ellis Island immigrants → Child labor → Celebrating workers’ dignity

WHAT HE PHOTOGRAPHED

Child Labor (His Most Famous Work):

  • Textile mills: Girls as young as 6-7 operating dangerous spinning machines
  • Coal mines: “Breaker boys” sorting coal with blackened faces
  • Canneries: Children shucking oysters until hands bled
  • Glass factories: Boys working night shifts in extreme heat
  • Street trades: Newsboys, shoe shiners working before dawn
  • Agricultural: Migrant children in cotton and berry fields

Industrial Workers:

  • Adults in dangerous factory conditions
  • Workers dwarfed by massive machinery
  • Long hours (12-16 hour shifts), poverty wages
  • Later “Work Portraits” celebrating laborers’ dignity and skill

Immigrant Workers:

  • Ellis Island arrivals (1904-1909)
  • Families with all possessions, mix of hope and fear
  • Tenement living conditions and sweatshop labor
  • Humanizing immigrants against xenophobic stereotypes

HOW HE WORKED

Undercover Methods:

  • Disguised himself as fire inspector, Bible salesman, postcard vendor
  • Factories didn’t want publicity about child workers
  • Sometimes hid camera in lunch pail
  • Worked quickly before being discovered and ejected

Documentation System:

  • Hidden notecard in pocket to record details
  • Noted names, ages, hours worked, wages, family situations
  • Combined photographs with detailed written captions
  • Words + images created powerful evidence

Visual Style:

  • Direct eye contact – subjects look at camera, creating emotional connection
  • Environmental context – shows workspace, machinery, exploitation system
  • Scale relationships – small children vs. massive machines = vulnerability
  • Natural light – authentic conditions, no staging
  • Worked with bulky large-format cameras requiring subjects to hold still

SOCIAL IMPACT

Legislative Change:

  • Photos used to lobby Congress for child labor laws
  • Helped pass Keating-Owen Act (1916) – first federal child labor law
  • Evidence in court cases about working conditions
  • State-level reforms across multiple states

Public Awareness:

  • Exhibitions, pamphlets, magazine publications
  • Made middle-class Americans aware of exploitation
  • Created moral outrage that demanded action
  • Made invisible workers visible to society

Photography History:

  • Established documentary photography as activism
  • Influenced FSA photographers, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans
  • Created template for photojournalism with social purpose
  • Over 5,000 photographs preserved as historical record

KEY THEMES IN HIS WORK

  • Dignity despite exploitation – Photographed workers with respect, not pity
  • Children robbed of childhood – Innocence stolen by industrial capitalism
  • The human cost of profit – Bodies damaged for economic gain
  • Invisible labor made visible – Society’s dependence on exploited workers
  • Photography as evidence – Visual proof of injustice that couldn’t be denied

HIS PHILOSOPHY

“There were two things I wanted to do. I wanted to show the things that had to be corrected. I wanted to show the things that had to be appreciated.”

  • Photography must serve a social purpose
  • Balance of exposing injustice + celebrating human dignity
  • Empathy and respect for subjects
  • Photographer has moral responsibility beyond taking pictures
  • Visual evidence more powerful than words alone