lewis Wicks Hine

Photographer and artist Lewis Wickes Hine, was born in 1874 in the town of Oshkosh, Wisconsin in America’s Midwest. Following the death of his father, he worked at a furniture factory to support the family and from here began to see the hardship and sufferings of working class Americans. In the early 1900s, Hine entered into a teacher’s training college in New York City, leading him into his photography career.

The artwork in focus here is titled “Powerhouse Mechanic”, taken in 1921.The medium here is gelatin silver print and the measurements for the sheet is 24.9cm by 17.6cm and the actually image is 24.2cm by 17.cm. It now rests in the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, America.

Hine passed away in New York City in 1940 out of poverty in trying to continue his passion for photography and compassion for the suffering.

A vertical portraiture, because the subject matter takes up most of the space, and not much of the background can be seen, except black, void space. The subject is made up of the young worker struggling against the huge machinery in the slight foreground, and takes up most of the space in the picture. Looking in his mid twenties, this

Artificial lighting has been used, not a flash. We know this because the print does not have harsh contrasting colours like prints where flash is used have. The aperture might be around 4, as there doesn’t seem o be much or any light coming from the surrounding areas apart from the artificial lighting. The shutter speed would be around 250, a standard shutter speed as the subject (the man) isn’t doing any fast action movements, and the picture is depicting him with the spanner as a still photograph. So the shutter speed would not be that slow either, so it has to be somewhere in the middle. And since the man is somewhat moving, the speed therefore has to be around 250. The filter would have to be around 2.5 to 3 because of the many variety of shades of grey seen here. The photo would be taken at slightly below eye level, so he might have bent his knees, and artificial lighting props may have been set up to give the picture a soft tone appearance.

On personally thoughts, I interpret the print as a very symbolic and emotional one, relating to the shapes of the machine against the man, and the size of the man compared to the machine. I favour this work of Hines more than the others because of it’s symbolic meaning, and also for it’s practical side. The shades of grey are plentiful, and I especially like the lighting which creates the soft tone in the picture.

Many shades of greys are in this print, with many soft tones, especially the features of the machine. The man has also a variety of tones, which can be seen as his muscle has a grey shade to it. B

Some topics in this essay:
York City, America’s Midwest, Wickes Hine, Hine Photographer, America Hine, Photo Analysis, artificial lighting, shutter speed, section machine, light source, soft tone, Lewis Wickes, lewis wickes hine, eye level, takes space, “powerhouse mechanic”, artist lewis, photo curved, artist lewis wickes, section machine frame,