Biography of Lewis Hine
(1874-1940)
Lewis Wickes Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1874. After graduating from high school, he worked at various jobs before enrolling at the University if Chicago in 1900. While at the University of Chicago, Hine met Frank E. Manny, Professor of Education at the State Normal School in New York. In 1901, at the invitation of Manning, Hine moved to New York City and accepted a position as an assistant teacher at the ECS. Hine began at this time to use a camera as an educational tool and to photograph school events. Hine also began to attend the School of Education at New York University.
In 1904, Hine, newly married to Sara Ann Rich became involve in a project to photograph Ellis Island. Anti Immigrant sentiment was pervasive and Manny encouraged Hine to portray the newly arrived with the same dignity and respect as those immigrants who landed at Plymouth Rock.
By 1905, Hine had received his degree from New York University. Continuing to photograph for the ECS and while conducting its Photography Club, he met Paul Strand. By 1906 Hine was considering a career in Sociological Photography and began to freelance work with the National Child Labor Committee. In 1907m the NCLC gave Hine his first assigned project. Hine was to photograph New York tenement homework. Later that year after enrolling at the graduate school of Columbia University to study sociology, Paul U. Kellogg assigned Hine to a pioneering sociological project, the Pittsburg Survey. This survey was to be an all encompassing detailed view of a typical industrial city. The survey showed the gap between the largely unskilled immigrant workers and the comfortable middle class of managers, executives and politicians. The goal of the survey was to promote a rational understanding of the social and economic inequities. It was believed that a greater public awareness would result in corrective social action.
In 1908, The NCLC provided Hine with a monthly salary and assigned Hine to photograph child labor practices. For the next several years, 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 public's attitude and was instrumental in the fight for stricter child labor laws.
As a school teacher, Hine was especially critical of the country's child labor laws. Although some states had enacted legislation designed to protect young workers, there were no national laws dealing with this problem. In 1908 the National Child Labor Committee employed Hine as their staff investigator and photographer. This resulted in two books on the subject, Child Labor in the Carolinas (1909) and Day Laborers Before Their Time (1909).
Hine traveled the country taking pictures of children working in factories. In on 12 month period he covered over 12,000 miles. Unlike the photographers who worked for Thomas Barnardo, Hine made no attempt to exaggerate the poverty of these young people. Hine's critics claimed that his pictures were not "shocking enough." However, Hine argued that people were more likely to join the campaign against child labor if they felt the photographs accurately captured the reality of the situation.
Factory owners often refused Hine permission to take photographs and accused him of muckraking. To gain access Hine sometimes hid his camera and posed as a fire inspector. Hine worked for the National Labor Committee for eight years. Hine told one audience: "Perhaps you are weary of child labor pictures. Well, so are the rest of us, but we propose to make you and the whole country so sick and tired of the whole business that when the time for action comes, child labor pictures will be records of the past."
In 1916 Congress eventually agreed to pass legislations to protect children. As a result of the Keating-Owen Act, restrictions were placed on the employment of children aged under 14 in factories and shops. Owen Lovejoy, Chairman of the National Child Labor Committee, wrote that: "the work Hine did for this reform was more responsible than all other efforts in bringing the need to public attention."
In 1912, with a future home in mind for their newborn son, Corydon, the Hines also purchased land in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. By 1913, Hine had established himself as perhaps the most successful social welfare photographer. For the next several years, he continued to travel as well as lecture for the NCLC. Several exhibits, particularly in San Diego and San Francisco, further established his reputation.
In 1917, after his salary at the NCLC was reduced, Hine accepted a position with the American Red Cross. During the next couple of years, Hine photographed refugees and displaced civilians in war torn Europe. Hine returned to New York City in 1920 and was assigned to the American Red Cross National Headquarters. Hine's advertising publicity now read "Lewis Wickes Hine, Interpretive Photography" and reflected Hine's belief in the symbolic and artistic aspect of his work. This belief may have been reinforced by a visit in 1921 to an exhibit of photographs by Alfred Stieglitz.
During the 1920's, Hine returned to Ellis Island, doing assignments for various agencies and publications. He also undertook various commercial assignments and in 1924 the Art Directors Club of New York awarded him a medal at the Exhibition of Advertising Arts.
In spite of the fame and recognition he received, Hine found difficulty making a living at photography. The in 1930 Hine was hired to photograph the construction of the Empire State Building. Where much of Hine's previous work had documented the dark side of labor and progress, the Empire State Building photographs celebrated the dignity and productivity of a proud post war American labor force.
In 1931, the largest exhibit yet of Hine's work took place at the Yonkers Art Museum. Shortly afterward in 1932 Hine's book, Men at Work, was published. In the 1930's Hine printed several portfolios, including Through The Loom, which was obtained by the Brooklyn Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and was exhibited at the 1933 World Fair. In 1936-37, Hine was appointed head photographer for the National Research Project of the Works Progress Administration. Attempts at this time to secure work with the Farm Services Administration proved unsuccessful as Roy Stryker considered Hine unfashionable and difficult to work with.
In 1939, sponsorship for a Hine retrospective of specially made large prints at the Riverside Museum in New York City was arranged and included, among others, Paul Strand and Alfred Stieglitz. This exhibit also traveled to the Des Moines Fine Arts Association Gallery in Iowa and the New York State Museum in Albany. After Lewis Hine's death in 1940, Corydon Hine donated his father's prints and negatives to the Photo League after finding little interest elsewhere. Eventually these materials were donated by the Photo League to the George Eastman House.