Lewis Hine is probably best known for photographing a group of iron workers eating lunch atop The Empire State Building.

Hine started out as a New York school teacher. In 1904 his wife got him involved with a program documenting immigrants coming through Ellis Island.  His passion for photography lead him to become an investigative reporter/photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. Much of his work consisted of documenting human labor issues in America.

In 1930, during the Great Depression, Lewis Hine was commissioned to document the construction of The Empire State Building.  Hine’s background and passion for photographing labor provided a wonderful perspective on the American construction worker. These photos are truly amazing, especially when you consider the photography equipment and risks he must of encountered.

Unfortunately Lewis Hine struggled later in his carrier and ended up experiencing the same level of poverty that he spent his earlier years photographing. His son even had trouble finding a home for his father’s photographs. Luckily for all of us nearly 10,000 of his prints and negatives ended up in the hands of the George Eastman House an International Museum of Photography & Film.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 at 7:01 am and is filed under Photographer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.