Untitled 1910

Lewis Hine made this gelatin silver print, Untitled, to document child labor. It’s a tightly cropped portrait, and the boy’s eyes are smack dab in the middle, staring right at you. You can’t help but look back. And then, you notice the cap. AD Western Union, it says. What was he thinking when he posed? Was he hopeful that this picture would somehow change his fate? Or was it just another day on the job? Hine wasn’t just snapping pictures; he was an activist, wielding his camera like a brush, layering the grays and blacks to expose the social realities of his time. Think of Daumier or Käthe Kollwitz, artists who used their work to shine a light on the plight of the working class. Hine, like them, wasn’t just making art; he was part of a broader conversation. A conversation about injustice, about empathy, about the human condition.