Lewis Hine
Lewis Hine was a single child born on September 26, 1874 in Wisconsin. Hine’s mentor was Frank A. Manny who encourage Hine to educate himself to become a teacher and to take photographs of his surroundings. Additionally, when Manny was appointed principal of the Ethical Culture School in New York, he invited Hine to accompany him. In New York City Hine studied at Columbia University and New York University, getting married in 1904 to Sara Ann Rich and having one child, Corydon Lewis.
Lewis Hine began to use a camera in 1903 in order to record activities at the Ethical Cultural School. However, Hine’s attention would turn to the immigrants that entered New York City through Ellis Island. He would photograph them as they entered New York City as well as their living and working conditions. Hine focused on illustrating the shocking conditions of child labor; he would smuggle his camera into factories as well as into mines to photograph and interview the children that work there. The photos became art and Hine would come to define a good photograph as “a reproduction of impressions made upon the photographer which he desires to repeat to others.”
Following WWI, the American Red Cross selected Hine to photograph the organization’s relief efforts. Afterwards, he was also selected to record the construction of the Empire State building. Yet, his works from these two experiences and from later projects did not compare to his earlier child labor photographs. Lewis Hine died on November 3, 1940.
