let it loose: Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine was an American photographer and sociologist. He used his photos to reform the child labor laws in the United States. Hine became staff photographer for the Russell Stage Foundation in 1906. In 1908 Hine became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. For the next ten years he photographed and documented child labor in the Carolina Piedmont. In 1913 he documented children workers in cotton mills with composite portraits. He also photographed the American Red Cross in Europe during World War I, and would work for them again during the Great Depression in America. He later photographed a series of portraits which focused on how people contribute to modern industry. In 1930, Hine photographed the construction of the Empire State Building from a basket floating 1,000 feet above the ground. He served as chief photographer for the WPA, and there are now more than 5,000 of his photographs in the Library of Congress. For more information on Hine, please visit the links below these examples of his work.