At the turn of the century, photography rapidly became an important medium of commenting on society. Lewis Hine was an influential voice pushing for social change on multiple issues.In 1900, Hine was attending the University of Chicago, where he met Professor Frank Manny, who would become his mentor. A year later, Hine accepted a position at the school where Manny was superintendant in New York, and began his education to become a teacher. His first big project, which began in 1904, was photographing immigrants at Ellis Island. The attitude towards immigrants at the time was very negative. Most immigrants lived in crowded, dirty housing and worked long hours for little pay. "Manny encouraged Hine to portray the newly arrived with the same dignity and respect as those immigrants who landed at Plymouth Rock," (photocollect.com). This is one of his most well-known collections of work.
Another very famous body of photographs Hine took are those concerning child labor. In 1908, after a year of freelance work with the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Hine was given the daunting task of photographing child labor practices in the U.S. "...Hine traveled extensively, photographing children in mines, factories, canneries, textile mills, street trades and assorted agricultural industries. Hine’s photographs alerted the public to the fact that child labor deprived children of childhood, health, education and a chance of a future. His work on this project was the driving force behind changing the publics attitude and was instrumental in the fight for stricter child labor laws," (photocollect.com). Hine's powerful photography and dedication to his beliefs helped bring about change, and proved that the the ordinary person can change the world.
* I did not include any of Hine's images here because there is a specific copyright notice on the best website I found. I have included that link below, it's The History Place. There are many photos, all of which include the original captions written by Hine. *
JH
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