week 2- Lauren



1.) I took this picture this weekend while skiing in the Swiss Alps in Interlaken, Switzerland. Although this picture is overwhelming with white, I thought it was awesome how much the little hint of sun brought this picture to life. I also like the skiis in the bottom left corner because of the character, color, as well as storyline it brings to the photo.

2.) Lewis Hine

 

Lewis W.Hine was born in 1874 in Oshkosh Wisconsin USA.

After his father died in an accident he began working and saved his money for a college education.

He became a teacher in New York City at the ethical culture school where he encouraged his students to use photography as an educational medium, the classes travelled to Ellis Island in New York harbour photographing the thousands of immigrants who arrived each day.

Between 1904 and 1909 Hine took over 200 plates (photographs) and eventually came to the realization that his vocation was photojournalism.

Hine became a photographer for the National Child Labour Committee (NCLC) and left his teaching position.

Hine photographed people in there working life, such as life in the steel making districts, people of Pittsburgh and in World War 1 he photographed for the American Red Cross.

Hine made a series of “work portraits” which emphasized the human contribution to modern industry.

Despite his professional successes, Hine found it hard to keep his head above water leading him to accept the offer to document the construction of The Empire State Building. Hine photographed the workers in precarious positions while they secured the iron and steel framework of the structure, taking many of the same risks the workers endured. In order to obtain the best vantage points. Hine was swung out in a specially designed basket 1,000 feet above Fifth Avenue.

In 1936, Hine was selected as the photographer for the National Research Project of the works projects administration but his work there was never completed.

The last years of his life were filled with professional struggles due to loss of government and corporate patronage. Nobody was interested in his work, past or present and Lewis Hine was consigned to the level of poverty he had earlier recorded in his pictures.

He died at the age of 66 on November 3^rd 1940 at the Dobbs Ferry Hospital after an operation.





This picture was taken while contructing the empire state building. I love this picture not only because of it obvious lines, but also because of the image and story it portrays of working people, yet it also portrays how the lives of these workers still go on even while at work.