Lewis Hine (1874-1940) is a photographer whose work interests me very much because of the social message sent by his documentary photographs. HineÆs photographs of immigrants are particularly appealing because he portrayed them with dignity and sympathy; as an immigrant myself, I appreciate his humanistic view.
Born in Wisconsin, Hine moved to New York City in 1901 after attending college in Chicago. He became a teacher and started to use a camera for educational purposes. His professional career as a photographer began in 1904 when he became involved in a project to photograph Ellis Island. Hine had a strong interest in the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island. ôThrough his photographs, Hine strove to render his subjects sympathetically, avoiding the common visual representations of the dayùwhich tended to depict immigrants as either dumb beasts, fit for nothing but hard labor, or happy idiots who didnÆt seem to care what sort of lives they ledö (Ibieta & Orvelli 466).
HineÆs sympathetic manner in photographing the immigrants set the tone for the rest of his work. He became interested in a career in Sociological Photography and left teaching to become an investigative photographer, portraying the plight of children and workers. He photographed the living and working conditions of Pittsburgh, and then became a staff photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. He used his photography ôto gather evidence of children working in harsh conditionsö in order to dramatize their plight and change the abuses and injustice of child labor (U.S. National Archives). Hine believed in the power to photography to bring about social change and his photography helped get child labor laws passed.
His photographs made the public aware ôthat child labor deprived children of childhood, health education and a chance of a future.ö His photographs for the National Child Labor Committee helped changed the publicÆs attitude and bro...