B & W Photographer Lewis W. Hine

So I know you've probably seen those old photographs of the working men on a structural beam suspended in the air, right? Those were the works of Lewis W. Hine, homegrown in Wisconsin right here in the US of A. He was considered one of the 'fathers of investigative photojournalism' known for his portraits of immigrants on Ellis Island and especially of child workers in factories and coal mines. He, himself, worked in a factory for 13 hours a day, taking over for his father who died at an early age. He spent a large portion of his life fighting child labor.

He traveled through many of the states on the East Coast sometimes under the premise of a fire inspector in order to gain access to document the use of child labor, and used his photojournalism to expose the mistreatment and protect the children. He traveled to Europe to document war refugees for the American Red Cross. Not until the late 1980's were these photographic images identified as his in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Getting back to the suspended photos, Lewis Hine took on the assignment of documenting the steelworkers building the Empire State Building. After that huge undertaking, he continued his pursuit of social documentary type themes.

When I was a young girl, though I was 'attracted' to photography, I didn't pursue that interest as it were. Looking back, I wished someone would have told me to follow my dreams. My sisters and I were encouraged, but more toward the business field in order to support ourselves, which was a good thing. But I guess I'll always wonder what I could or would have done if I'd pursued that one particular dream. It would have been a good time - the 60's - I mean I could have been a contender! I could have been Linda McCartney!!

Organization

Today my husband was able to help me put together some of the items I purchased last week from Ikea. First was the under the table slide out keyboard for my computer. That was pretty easy. Requiring a little more exertion was the CD tower I bought to house all my CDs - Hah! that's a laugh - that we put together and then he secured it to my wall shelving units. It actually looks like it's part of the shelving, however, I definitely could have used another one.

I had also purchased some additional storage boxes and so I ended up putting the remaining 40 or so CDs in those two boxes for now. And then housed my art magazines in the two of the flat matching boxes. Makes it look tidy! I really need to get rid of the futon I have in here. I mean I love it and it was a present to myself purchased with a tax refund some years ago, but I really need more space.

Later this afternoon we went down to Barnes & Noble and I bought a book titled, "50 Photographers You Should Know". I just read thru half of it and it was extremely interesting. It's a good idea to read up on your passion every now and then to get yourself 'motivated' or more like 're-inspired'. Now I want to go out and take some pictures of new places I haven't been. I really enjoy taking photos of people in their own environment. Every now and then I'll think about how and where to arrive at that certain place in order to capture what I'm imagining. I read about Robert Doiseneau and how he took photos of street life - alot of the time he arranged his photos but also as he put it, '...left the door open for whatever comes along'. He photographed street life of Paris day and night. And Brassai who was a night owl also took photos of the night life in the streets of Paris! How lucky can you get. And how come I wasn't born Dorothea Lange? Even though times today are somewhat of another depression, people have changed and it would be harder now to take photographs of people in dire straights. It just wouldn't be easy.