Cranberry Pickers 1910

Lewis Hine took this photo of cranberry pickers, though we don't know exactly when. Looking at this image, I can't help but think about all the pictures I have taken. Hine used his camera to draw attention to the lives of working people, especially children, which makes you wonder, what was he thinking? What did he want people to see? The tones are soft, almost like a watercolor painting. The repetition of the figures creates a rhythm across the frame, bending and reaching, picking and gathering. It feels like the figures are connected through their labor and the landscape. I am reminded of other photographers and artists who have documented labor and social issues, from Dorothea Lange to Sebastião Salgado. This photo feels connected to that long tradition of bearing witness and sparking change through art.