Lewis Hine and his images of child labour

I have come across Lewis Hine before but I found it interesting to see his work at the Print Room at the V&A on a recent study visit.

Hine has been called the father of documentary photography for his work that he did on child labour in the US.  He shamed the American public into action with his hard hitting images of children, some as young as 7 or 8, working in the mines and factories across the country.  The most striking thing about these images is the  size of the children operating the big machines and in relation to mining the sheer number of children working in terrible conditions.

Hine set out to assemble evidence of child labour and present to the public at a time when they had shied about from the fact that it existed in the first place.  His images show the truth o the reality of child labour in America.

Hine however also celebrated the life of the labourer in his series of images of workers on the Empire State building.  These people were to be celebrated for what they were achieving, for the risks they took to their own safety to complete their work.

I found his work on the immigrants at Ellis Island very interesting especially in relation to the work I am doing for my final assignment of this course.  Hine put a human face on the problem of immigration.  He also had a connection with the immigrants which we can see in his images.

I think what we see in Hine's work is factual photographs with a human touch.  We see the emotional alongside the photograph as a document.

Although Hine's work is very different from what I want to achieve with my assignment I have found it interesting to look at the way in which he has tackled the immigration issue.  He is looking at the problem at the time it was happening I am looking back at it which gives two very different viewing perspectives.