The Photographic Lens of Lewis Wickes Hine and the Spaces In Between Progressive, Documentary, and Artistic Photography

<p>Progressive Era photographer Lewis Wickes Hine is best known for his child labor photography from the National Child Labor Committee. This dissertation seeks to expand the understandings associated with Hine’s photography of Southern and Eastern European immigrants by examining his photography as both historical document and as works of art. Pressing Hine’s work past the previous categorizations allows for analysis of his photography which opens new interpretations and spaces. Hine’s photography is not only a pictural historical reference but when read in its entirety many more historical insights become visible. Evaluating Hine’s photography from Ellis Island, The Pittsburgh Survey and the National Child Labor Committee collections enables us to fully comprehend the ways Hine’s positionality drifted between photographic documentarian, reform photographer, and artist. This project analyzes Hine’s photography via its composition, style and through his conscious or unconscious personal intentions, and those of the organizations for which he worked. This project opens spaces of historical photographic analysis and significance beyond the original created or intended purpose. Hine’s photographs, written works, and correspondence serve as sites of investigation of spaces in which he deviated from or held to Progressive ideologies. The totality of these spaces within Hine’s work pushes beyond previous binary considerations to reveal the intricate historical implications his photography has always contained.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

History, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Arts and Humanities

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Kolinchak, Lara Ann

Contributors dc:contributor

• Matthew Bowman
• Romeo Guzmán

• Gender
• Immigration
• Hine
• Lewis Wickes
• Photography
• Progressive Era
• Progressives
• American Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1053

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-2075