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<\/a>Lewis Hine sought to save innocent children who toiled for long, brutal hours in factories, mills, mines, canneries, and farms, and in the streets, using a singular device: his camera.<\/p>\n
Working her fifth season, Ann Parion, 13, carried 60 pounds of berries from the fields to the sheds at Newton\u2019s farm in Delaware. At age 6, Willie Cherry helped her stepbrother at the Massey Hosiery Mill in Georgia. In a 1915 photo by Hine, an 8-year-old boy grimaces as he works to remove the top off beets. In 1911, Hine captured a line of shrimp-pickers for the Biloxi Canning Company, recording their ages in his report: \u201cTwo children of five years. One of seven years. Two of eight years. One of nine. Two of ten. Two of eleven (one who had been working at this factory two years). Three of twelve, (one working here 4 years and one two years).\u201d Through his camera, Hine showed the work lives of these children \u2013 and many more.<\/p>\n
Documenting these child laborers in various states, Hine risked his life, under threat of killing and other violence from factory security officers and foremen, to photograph their duress and exploitation. He used guises to elude detection or waited until he could take pictures of them outside the workplaces. Hine\u2019s photos are so evocative and powerful that in viewing these children, one can feel the dirt and darkness of cramped factory quarters, sense the difficulty and grime of shucking oysters for long hours, and see the strain upon small arms and backs of carrying crates of fruit or bending over without a break.<\/p>\n