American History PERIOD 3
Katie Gardner
How Photography
Changed America
___
By Nate Levinzon
INTRODUCTION
Everyday, millions of people are bombarded with graphic imagery. From “the” next car to toothpaste, advertisements and designs made to captivate us end up making us numb to their very existence. Desensitized by the fact that the convicting images of lust, desire, and horror contained in these mediums make us barely bat an eye. One no longer looks at a Carl’s Jr advertisement and sees sex, rather just a sad ploy to make us eat burgers. Shock value is lost in our day and age. Despite this being our present, our views on controversial photography was not always such. Travel back to the Progressive Era of American History. The era in …show more content…
After a series of odd jobs, he became a police reporter, a job he enhanced with his natural photographic skills. Led by his interest in New York City's tenement life and the harsh conditions people living there endured, he used his camera as a tool to bring about change. With his 1890 book How the Other Half Lives, Riis put those living conditions on display in a package that wasn't to be ignored, and his career as a social reformer was launched. Riis argued for better housing, adequate lighting and sanitation, and the construction of city parks and playgrounds. He portrayed middle-class and upper-class citizens as benefactors and encouraged them to take an active role in defining and shaping their communities. Riis believed that charitable citizens would help the poor when they saw for themselves how "the other half" lived. According to historian Robert …show more content…
The Museum of Modern Art was offered his pictures and did not accept them, but the George Eastman House did. The Library of Congress holds over 5,000 Hine photographs, including examples of his child labor and Red Cross photographs, his work portraits, and his WPA and TVA images. Other large institutional collections include nearly ten thousand of Hine's photographs and negatives held at the George Eastman House and almost five thousand NCLC photographs at the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
In 2006, author Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop's historical fiction middle-grade novel, "Counting on Grace" was published by Wendy Lamb Books. The latter chapters center on 12-year-old Grace and her life-changing encounter with photographer Lewis Hine, during his 1910 visit to a Vermont cotton mill known to have many child laborers. On the cover is the iconic photo of Grace's real-life counterpart, Addie Card (1887-1993), taken during Hine's undercover visit to the Pownal Cotton
Katie Gardner
How Photography
Changed America
___
By Nate Levinzon
INTRODUCTION
Everyday, millions of people are bombarded with graphic imagery. From “the” next car to toothpaste, advertisements and designs made to captivate us end up making us numb to their very existence. Desensitized by the fact that the convicting images of lust, desire, and horror contained in these mediums make us barely bat an eye. One no longer looks at a Carl’s Jr advertisement and sees sex, rather just a sad ploy to make us eat burgers. Shock value is lost in our day and age. Despite this being our present, our views on controversial photography was not always such. Travel back to the Progressive Era of American History. The era in …show more content…
After a series of odd jobs, he became a police reporter, a job he enhanced with his natural photographic skills. Led by his interest in New York City's tenement life and the harsh conditions people living there endured, he used his camera as a tool to bring about change. With his 1890 book How the Other Half Lives, Riis put those living conditions on display in a package that wasn't to be ignored, and his career as a social reformer was launched. Riis argued for better housing, adequate lighting and sanitation, and the construction of city parks and playgrounds. He portrayed middle-class and upper-class citizens as benefactors and encouraged them to take an active role in defining and shaping their communities. Riis believed that charitable citizens would help the poor when they saw for themselves how "the other half" lived. According to historian Robert …show more content…
The Museum of Modern Art was offered his pictures and did not accept them, but the George Eastman House did. The Library of Congress holds over 5,000 Hine photographs, including examples of his child labor and Red Cross photographs, his work portraits, and his WPA and TVA images. Other large institutional collections include nearly ten thousand of Hine's photographs and negatives held at the George Eastman House and almost five thousand NCLC photographs at the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
In 2006, author Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop's historical fiction middle-grade novel, "Counting on Grace" was published by Wendy Lamb Books. The latter chapters center on 12-year-old Grace and her life-changing encounter with photographer Lewis Hine, during his 1910 visit to a Vermont cotton mill known to have many child laborers. On the cover is the iconic photo of Grace's real-life counterpart, Addie Card (1887-1993), taken during Hine's undercover visit to the Pownal Cotton