Seldom were our forefathers attracted to politically or socially motivated photographs. Inspite of political and economic reforms of the New Deal that made present employment almost effortless, social photographers to whom modern generation owes outstanding commendations were not hailed as icons of American social history. Social history was not a lucrative subject. Teenagers and adults would rather live in drunken if not inebriated stupor and enjoy watching live bands while dancing to their tunes during the 1920s to 30s.
But one benevolent photographer differed from them all-and only one among two or three. His name is Lewis W. Hine. He was also discriminated by peers.
I was appalled by the fact that social photographers were pariahs in factories. Literally thrown out in the streets by management and their unscrupulous scabs who reacted with increased violence and hostility, unwilling to accept the existence and proliferation of premature workers and the underpaid, they were not given their due.
‘Lewis W. Hine whose approach was both political and artistic paid immensely for his contribution to social photography. He definitely was not an apologist for corporate America. The label “social documentary photographer” did not obscure his contributions as a photojournalist. He was the penultimate genius whose later years were glorious. But there is one thing in Lewis that made him stand out from the crowd: Inspite of the bumpy road of his postwar methodology which was rare, he combined an Old World (that is, post-Victorian) moral sensibility with a modernist’s eye for translating quotidian experience into transcendental imagery.’
Bibliography: Photo Story
Selected Letters and Photographs of Lewis W. Hine, Edited by Daile Kaplan
Foreword by Berennice Abbott
But one benevolent photographer differed from them all-and only one among two or three. His name is Lewis W. Hine. He was also discriminated by peers.
I was appalled by the fact that social photographers were pariahs in factories. Literally thrown out in the streets by management and their unscrupulous scabs who reacted with increased violence and hostility, unwilling to accept the existence and proliferation of premature workers and the underpaid, they were not given their due.
‘Lewis W. Hine whose approach was both political and artistic paid immensely for his contribution to social photography. He definitely was not an apologist for corporate America. The label “social documentary photographer” did not obscure his contributions as a photojournalist. He was the penultimate genius whose later years were glorious. But there is one thing in Lewis that made him stand out from the crowd: Inspite of the bumpy road of his postwar methodology which was rare, he combined an Old World (that is, post-Victorian) moral sensibility with a modernist’s eye for translating quotidian experience into transcendental imagery.’
Bibliography: Photo Story
Selected Letters and Photographs of Lewis W. Hine, Edited by Daile Kaplan
Foreword by Berennice Abbott
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