Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 – 1940)
Photographer Lewis Wickes Hines is known for capturing some of the most iconic images of the early 1900s for the NCLC. He is well known for documenting ‘slice of life’ images. Hine captured feats of daring, such as the construction worker stringing cable (right). He photographed immigrant arrivals at Ellis Island. Hine was a teacher and sociologist focusing on cultural ethics. In his work photographing child laborers, he documented what he considered a great injustice. His social justice photography quickly gained notice. The National Child Labor Committee hired Hine in 1908 as their official photographer. From 1911 to 1916, Hine traveled across the country, photographing the working conditions for children and interviewing their families to learn their stories. Like Jacob Riis’s work exposing the conditions of the poor living in tenements, or Upton Sinclair’s novel that revealed unsanitary food production practices, Hines’ work literally changed the United States.