General Utility Boy at Lumber Company 1913

This sepia toned photograph by Lewis Hine captures a "General Utility Boy at Lumber Company." I wonder about the day that this image was made. I think about Hine’s work as this urgent, political project to capture an America in transition, where progress and exploitation were two sides of the same coin. His work documents, in such a tender way, the impact that industry had on young people. Just look at how the soft light hits this boy. He's standing on a railroad track, surrounded by wood, his slight frame against the weight of all that lumber. I imagine Hine capturing this moment, thinking about the boy’s life ahead. The boy looks directly at the camera, and for a moment, we can see that he is seen. I can imagine that Hine has made him visible for us to observe, just for a moment, his youth.