(click photographs for captions)
Taking photographs that documented child labor abuse was not simple. Factory managers didn’t want to share activities behind closed doors, so Hine was forced to go undercover.
“Nattily dressed in a suit, tie and hat, Hine the gentleman actor and mimic assumed a variety of personas — including Bible salesman, postcard salesman and industrial photographer making a record of factory machinery — to gain entrance to the workplace. When unable to deflect his confrontations with management, he simply waited outside the canneries, mines, factories, farms and sweatshops with his 50 pounds of photographic equipment and photographed children as they entered and exited the workplace.”
-Photo Historian Daile Kaplan
Once Hine gained entrance into the workplace, he photographed children at work and conducted mini interviews. He captured basic information about his subjects used in his photo captions. Hine often posed as an industrial photographer, bringing children into the picture last minute as a way to scale the machinery size.
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If Hine couldn’t enter the workplace, he waited outside the job site, photographed and interviewed children as they reported for and departed from work.
(click for photographs for captions)
Hine learned how to write in his pocket, so that factory managers wouldn’t become suspicious. The children’s interviews were brief, as Hine scribbled notes in his coat pocket. Hine measured children’s height by the buttons of his vest. He knew exactly how far apart they were from each other and the ground, and took a rough estimate. Children commonly did not know or provide their age, so Hine had to estimate age based on their height.
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“Hine traveled from the Northeast to the Deep South, photographing children working under extreme conditions in mills, factories, mines, fields and canneries.”
-International Photography Hall of Fame
“He took pictures of children working in the streets as shoe shiners, newsboys, and hawkers.”
-National Archives
“He crisscrossed the country, covering some 100,000 miles and taking about 5,000 photos.”
-Vicki Goldberg (Author of Children at Work)
-International Photography Hall of Fame
“He took pictures of children working in the streets as shoe shiners, newsboys, and hawkers.”
-National Archives
“He crisscrossed the country, covering some 100,000 miles and taking about 5,000 photos.”
-Vicki Goldberg (Author of Children at Work)
Because Hine covered such vast terrain, he was able to obtain a large collection of photographs as evidence for his argument. His focus of certain industries is evident in his collection.
(click photographs for captions)
"Mills"