Ginger Photography: Unit 208- Theme 2- Lewis Hines Portrait Photographer

Lewis.W. Hine was born in Oshkosh Wisconsin USA in 1874 . After graduating from school he worked in various jobs before going to the university of Chicago in 1900 where he met a professor of education Frank Manny, Frank had recently been appointed superintendent of the Ethical Culture school in New York . In 1901 Hine moved to New York after being asked to accept a position as an assistant teacher at the school by Frank and at this time Hine had began to use a camera as an educational tool to photograph school events . Hine then decided to return back to school himself by attending the school of education at New York Plymouth Rock. By 1905 Hine had received a degree and continued to photograph at the EC school in New York . Hine was also helping in a photograph club at this time and met a man called Paul Strand whom deemed to be influential and in 1905 was considering a career in sociological photography leading Hine into his next line of work with The National Child Labor Committee and by 1907 he had his first freelance assignment with them . In 1908 Hine was working and receiving a monthly salary from the NCLC and photographed child labor practices ,during the next seven years Hine traveled photographing mines ,factories , canneries ,textile mills and agricultural industries .
Hines photographs started to make a point to the public that children were being deprived of childhood ,health ,education and a chance for a future. Hines work on the subject changed the publics attitude towards child labor and strict laws were enforced .
In 1912 Hine started a family and by 1913 had established himself as a successful social welfare photographer , for the next seven years Hine continued to travel ,exhibit and lecture for the NCLC . In 1917 Hine excepted a position with The National Red Cross spending the next two years photographing refugees and displaced civilians in war torn Europe . During the 1920's Hine undertook various assignments and in 1924 was to be awarded a medal by The Arts Directors Club of New York at an exhibition of Advertising Arts ,Hine found it difficult to make a living at photography even though he was famous ,then in 1930 Hine was hired to photograph the construction of the Empire State Building . In 1931 Hines work was exhibited in the Yonkers Art Museum and Hine then went on to publish a book in 1932 ,Men and Work .
In 1939 , sponsorship for Hine retrospective of specially made large prints were exhibited at the riverside museum in New York , with the works of Paul Strand and Alfred Stieglitz were to be included too.
Lewis .W,Hine died in 1940 and his son Croydon donated his fathers prints and negatives to The Photo League after finding little interest elsewhere ,eventually they were then donated again to The George Eastman House.

Lewis Hine's black and white images of people and children really strikes me , he manages to capture reality and the individuals personality in their working environment in his work . Lewis Hines is also famous for capturing images of child labor between 1908 and 1912 . Each of the images below tells a story of the working conditions , the age of the workers and some intricate machines and work needed to be done in their every day lives.
I have Chosen photographs of people in their working environment as this is what I have been doing in my unit 208 ,theme 2 .

The light and detail is fab in all of the shots on this page, Lewis has got the workers and their machinery/placement in the frame and you can tell the line of work each individual is undertaking ,showing a story in all of his images .The shots draw you in, and you seem to be wanting to know more about the real people in the photographs.