A World in Pictures- Jessica Nelson

This photograph was taken by the famous photographer Lewis Hine. Just by knowing that name you can tell the photography will be about child labor. During Hine’s lifetime the industrial revolution was in full swing and he was captivated by it, but not in a good way. He was heartbroken by the treatment of the children working mostly in factories but also spanning occupations such as coal mining, which this child was involved in. The series he took and published told the story of the children of this time, of America’s future and it’s abandonment of justice. The dirty, damaged, and dreary children shown shocked the public into changing not only a mindset but also their economic way of life. There was nothing special about the boy in this photograph, he was the norm. But photographing him called attention to it. No longer could children like this be made the scenery, no longer could the inhumane conditions be ignored, no longer could parents justify what they were putting their kids through. Hine’s photographs made people see what had been right in front of them all along, and they didn’t like it either.