Lewis Hine (1874-1940)
Lewis Hine was trained to observe people—he studied sociology at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and New York University, taking a teaching post in the field in the early 1900s. He learned early the craft of photography and used it as a tool for sociological study, bringing a tripod and view camera with his students to Ellis Island to document the scene of arrival in America. The camera became his primary tool in what became a career in social reform: he documented child labor, dangerous working conditions, and generally the plight of the working class. His photography contributed to labor reform, but and it also won Hine a dangerous reputation with foremen and police. Hine described donning false identities to gain access to the factory floor, sometimes explaining that he was there to photograph the machinery itself. [1] His focus remained the workers, but from a sociological standpoint, they couldn’t be entirely separated from their mechanical counterparts. He developed a fascination with the machine – both as collaborator and oppressor of the people he worked to protect.

[1] Walter Rosenblum, America & Lewis Hine: Photographs 1904–1940, New York, 1977, n.p.