Glassmaking 1908

Lewis Hine made this gelatin silver print called "Glassmaking," and when I look at it, I imagine the kind of seeing that only photography can do, capturing a moment in time. These young workers are bathed in light, their serious faces hinting at the weight of their labor. I sympathize with Hine, too. Imagine being there with your camera, trying to capture the scene, thinking about what it all means, as a kind of social document. Those tubes overhead are an amazing and surreal, almost like surrealist drips or brushstrokes. They’re like something out of a sci-fi film, yet they're right there in the factory. I start thinking about how Hine’s work fits into photography's history. And how these kinds of observations impact later generations of artists and activists. It's all one conversation really, isn't it?