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For Lewis
Wicks Hine (1874-1940) the camera was both
a research tool and an instrument of social reform. Born in Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, Hine studied sociology at the University of Chicago and
Columbia and New York Universities. He began his career in 1904
photographing immigrants arriving in the United States at Ellis
Island in New York harbor. In 1908 he became photographer for the
National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). Over the next decade, Hine
documented child labor in American industry to aid the NCLC's lobbying
efforts to end the practice. Between 1906 and 1908, he was a freelance
photographer for The Survey, a leading social reform magazine. In
1908, Hine photographed life in the steelmaking section of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, for the influential study "The Pittsburgh Survey."
During and after World War I, he documented American Red Cross relief
work in Europe. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Hine made a series
of "work portraits," which emphasized the human contribution
to modern industry, and included photographs of the workers constructing
New York City's Empire State Building. During the Great Depression,
he again worked for the Red Cross, photographing drought relief
in the American South, and for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA),
documenting life in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. He also
served as chief photographer for the Works Progress Administration's
(WPA) National Research Project, which studied changes in industry
and their effect on employment. (Courtesy
of National Archives "Picturing the Century" online exhibit.) |
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