Child Labor History

During the early decades of the twentieth century, the number of child laborers in the United States boomed. As the industrialization period occurred, which moved workers from farms and home workshops, into urban areas and factory work, children were often preferred. The owners of factories viewed them to be more convenient, cheaper, and less likely to strike. Therefore inciting the era of child labor in the United States. A man by the name of Lewis W. Hine began taking photographs of children in the workforce as a tool for social reform. Hine, along with his camera, saved children all throughout America by enabling the public to see the immorality of child labor. Hine’s photographs were, therefore, essential in the changing of child labor …show more content…
This technique reveals the workplace, machine, or task the child is involved with at the time. Most of the children in Hine’s photographs probably never had their picture taken before. Quite often the children appear to be stiff and even rigid, as if turning themselves into daguerreotypes, and most are solemn, utterly serious, and occasionally forlorn. When a group photo was taken, you can see the different ways the children confronted the camera also the wonderfully varied expressions. These expressions varied from being shy, aggressive, confident, and amusement. On the other hand, Hine was willing to allow life and its surprises into the picture as well. In one of his photographs “Boys of the Dumps” (1909) two boys who have been picking through a dump laugh with one another, though most would think there was not much to laugh about (see Figure 4). This photograph taken by Hine catches the other side of the child laborers by showing how these young kids can work all day like an adult, but still remain children at heart and can find something to laugh at in an unfortunate situation like in the photograph I have taken …show more content…
These techniques being that the child is the center of attention in the photo, the child appears to be stiff, the background is sort of faded out, and of course the child appears to be working. However, I based my photo solely on Hine’s photograph “Boys of the Dumps” where Hine captured a rare moment of happiness in child laborers. That photo really stood out to me and made me realize that all life is precious, so always bring out the best in yourself even in a bad situation.
I decided to use my younger sister as my prodigy in my photograph, even though she opposed the idea, considering she was the youngest person I had access to at the time. Honestly, I had to in some way “force” her to be in my photo acknowledging the fact that I am the older brother. I had asked her to dress like she had been working all day, only to hear her reply “I don’t know how to dress like that.” So I gave her my old work jeans and ratty sweatshirt, messed up her hair a bit, then threw in a pair of mud boots and I finally got my child laborer. Now it was off to the farm for my