LEWIS W. HINE "ALBANIAN WOMAN, ELLIS ISLAND" 1905, LATER PRINT

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Description:

The Artist: Lewis W. Hine (American, 1874-1940)

Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Lewis W. Hine studied sociology before moving to New York in 1901 to work at the Ethical Culture School, where he took up photography to enhance his teaching practices. By 1904 he had begun a series of photographs documenting the arrival of immigrants at Ellis Island; this project, along with his pictures of harsh labor conditions published in the Pittsburgh Survey, brought his work to the attention of the National Child Labor Committee. He served as its official photographer from 1911 to 1916, and later traveled with the Red Cross to Europe, where he documented the effects of World War I in France and the Balkans for Red Cross Magazine. After returning to the United States in 1922, he accepted commercial assignments, produced another series on Ellis Island immigrants, and photographed the construction of the Empire State Building. Several of these construction pictures were published in Men at Work (1932), a book celebrating the individual worker's interaction with machines in the modern world. Despite the success of this book, Hine's financial situation became desperate and his photography was virtually forgotten. Berenice Abbott and Elizabeth McCausland learned of his work through the New York City Photo League and mounted a traveling retrospective exhibition of his work to revive interest in it in 1939.

The Story:

Hine is best known for the documentary images of child labor practices that he produced under the aegis of the National Child Labor Committee from 1911 to 1916. These photographs not only have been credited as important in the passing of child labor laws, but also have been praised for their sympathetic depiction of individuals in abject working conditions.

Lewis Hine is considered one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century and a pioneer of social documentary photography. At the end of his life, however, few people were interested in his work, and he died in financial difficulty. After Hine’s death, his son donated his prints and negatives to the Photo League, a group of socially committed professional photographers. After closure of the league, the collection was stored in the home of a member, Walter Rosenblum (1919−2006), before being donated to the George Eastman Museum.

Walter Rosenblum, a past president of the Photo League, retired professor, and a recognized expert on Hine, was accused of having printed and selling hundreds of modern versions of Lewis Hine’s work to six dealers. While it would not be illegal for Rosenblum to have sold copies printed from Hine’s original negatives if he identified himself as the printer, he claimed that the photos were printed by Hine.

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