Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Fri, 08/29/2008 - 10:23am.
Hine didn't create those awful working conditions to fit his "agenda," he took the pictures to point out the awful working conditions. Perhaps these people are smiling because it's what's expected when someone points a camera at you, especially as this might be the only photograph that would be taken of you.
[ Conditions were not "awful." No one was making these girls work here. Lewis Hine took these pictures because that's what he was paid to do. His goal was ending child labor, not the employment of people these girls' age. - Dave]
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Fri, 08/29/2008 - 1:20am.
My great-grandmother worked in a Virginia cotton mill as a teenager in the 1910s. In 1975 I interviewed her as part of my graduate thesis. One thing she kept repeating was what a "wonderful" job it was, and how "blessed" she was to be able to work there. When I asked about workplace conditions she said the only "workplace" the girls had before that was in the fields. "Crawling though [poop]." Maybe that's why they all look so happy.
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 4:49pm.
Indianapolis didn't get the nickname "Crossroads of America" for nothing. It was a good halfway point between Chicago & Cincinnati, and lots of other places. So it's not surprising to me that cotton would be shipped here for working.
Submitted by JackCoupal on Wed, 01/30/2008 - 12:01pm.
As another commenter mentioned, here's another Lewis Hine photo where the subjects are not glaring angrily at the photographer. Could it be that the workers were actually satisfied with their worksite? That doesn't fit in well with Hine's agenda that workers were abused by their employer. So, Hine could be balanced in the way he shows his subjects.
BTW, it looks like one could get pretty dirty working in a cotton mill (in Indianapolis, of all places!). Surprising, but what do I know.
