Lewis Hine was an american photographer and sociologist. He was instrumental in social reform in the United States, in particular the child labor laws.
After studying Sociology, Hine began a career in teaching in New York . It was here that photography began to play a major role in his life and work after taking his classes to Ellis island to take photos and document the thousands of immigrants who were arriving each day. Hine's work took him to, amongst other places, to the steel working districts of Pittsburgh, all over the U.S. documenting child labour and to Europe during and after WWI documenting the work being done by the American Red Cross.
Hine to me is inspiring because his work was done for a purpose and succeeded in itself and although not for the same purpose as my own, the level of dedication he had is inspiring. For instance when he was suspended 1000 feet above 5th Avenue in order to document the work of the men constructing the Empire State Building in photos such as these:
"I wanted to show the thing that had to be corrected: I wanted to show the things that had to be appreciated." Said Hine and in his photographs he seemed able to capture the effect upon and relation between the people and their environment.
In the above photo you see a long line of machinery at which there is a young girl working. I like the contrast in the photo between the solid,steel machine and the small girl.
The images of child labor portray situations which most would call wrong and injust which was exactly the point of the photographs; to expose a system that was immoral and was let alone on the basis that few had real insight into what was going on.
