Lewis Hine Photography

Lewis Hine Photography

What is this H.O.T task?

• You will analyze a photograph and – Interpret the impact of visual cues (camera

angle, exposure, framing)– Connect the photo to historical events and

trends– Evaluate the photographer’s message

Who was Lewis Hine?

• School teacher• Quit job to become an investigative

photographer• Wanted to end child labor• Essential Question: How does Hine

convey his message about child labor through his photography?

Let’s read his BIOGRAPHY…

Photograph Analysis

• Subject• Angle• Exposure (amount of light)• Framing• Historical Context• Photographer’s perspective• Message • How does it engage the 5 senses?• How does the bias effect perspective?

David Conover- Yank Magazine 1943

• Subject• Angle• Exposure• Framing• Historical Context• Photographer’s

perspective• How does it engage the 5 senses?• How does the bias effect perspective?• Message

What kinds of jobs did children do?

• American children worked in large numbers in mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, and as newsboys, messengers, bootblacks, and peddlers.

Connecting Past to Present-Child Labor Today

Child Labor Today

• The International Labor Organization estimates worldwide that there are 246 million exploited children aged between 5 and 17 involved in debt bondage, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, the illegal drug trade, the illegal arms trade and other illicit activities around the world.

• Domestic servitude is an especially large area where we find children being exploited, especially in poorer countries.

• In Nepal, around 25,000 girls as young as six years old, are bonded away each year into a life of slavery.

What is child labor?• Though definitions vary, child labor means work that is done by

children under the age of 15 (14 in some developing countries) which restricts or damages a child's physical, emotional, intellectual, social and/or spiritual growth.

Sometimes, work does not harm children. Work may even help them to learn new skills or to develop a sense of responsibility. Most people agree that when we speak about child labor, we mean labor which is intolerable or harmful to children, or which denies them their right to fully develop, to play or to go to school.

Child labor includes:

• Work performed by children under the age of 15• Long hours of work on a regular or full-time basis• Abusive treatment by the employer• No access, or poor access, to education

• Thousands of children in West Africa work in the production of cocoa, chocolate’s primary ingredient. The West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire is the leading supplier of cocoa, accounting for more than 40% of global production. Low cocoa prices received by cocoa farmers for their beans drive them to employ children as a means to survive. The US Department of State estimates that more than 109,000 children in Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa industry work under “the worst forms of child labor,” and that some 10,000 are victims of human trafficking or forced labor.

American companies using child labor

What about Connecticut Child Labor Regulations?

Connecticut Department of Labor Permitted Occupations for 14 & 15 Year-Olds:• Agriculture • Street trades (newspaper delivery, shoe shining, baby-sitting, etc.) • Hospitals (no food service or laundry) • Convalescent homes (no food service or laundry) • Hotels and motels (no food service or laundry) • Banks • Insurance companies • Professional offices (lawyers, CPAs, etc.) • Municipalities (library attendants, recreation departments, etc.) • Golf caddies • Acting • Household chores for private homeowners (yard work, etc.) • Licensed summer camps • Mercantile/solicitation (see below)* • *15-year old may be employed or permitted to work in any mercantile establishment

as a bagger, cashier, or stock clerk

More CT Labor Laws

• 14 & 15 year-old minors may not be employed:

• During school hours. • Before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., except from July 1

to Labor Day, when evening hours are extended to 9 p.m.

• More than 3 hours per day on school days or 8 hours on non-school days.

• More than 18 hours a week in school weeks or 40 hours in non-school weeks.

Back to Hine

First we will pick a photo to analyze aloud as a class.

Then, we will pick a photo to analyze as a class but you will answer the questions on your own for your proficiency.

• - What is the American dream? Is it obtainable for all?• -How is the immigrant experience presented to grade school

students? • -Is America a haven for immigrant populations?• -Was the immigrant experience romanticized? Is it today?• -Is America a melting pot or a salad bowl?• -Was the presence of immigrant groups during the industrial era

essential to the economic development of America?• -What problems to modern immigrants face in the states today?• -What should the US immigrant policy be in the decade to come?• -What stereotypes of ethnic groups exist today and are these used

to justify the treatment of certain groups? Can we overcome these stereotypes?

• -Are we a xenophobic nation?• -What should the United States do about child labor today? Can

anything be done? Is child labor really wrong from a moral standpoint?