Lewis Wickes Hine was born on September 26, 1874 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. When Lewis Hine was 18, "his father died in an accident. To help support his mother and an unmarried sister, Lewis found a job as a hauler in an Oshkosh furniture factory." (Freedman 7). After years of hard work, Hine began college. "He spent a year at the Normal School, then enrolled for another year at the University of Chicago, studying to be a teacher" (Freedman 8-9).
"It was a new problem for me, this Empire State Building, full of surprises and thrills, of hard exhausting climbs up long vertical ladders with a heavy camera on my back, of perching way up the tops of columns and even on the very tip of the morring mast for special shots. " (Hine)
Hine began working at Ethical Culture School in New York "as a teacher of geography and nature study." (Freedman 9). Hine was also in charge of taking photographs of the school's activities.
Hine's interest in photography grew when he took a school trip to Ellis Island to photograph arriving immigrants. In 1908, Lewis Hine accepted a job with the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). Hine gained most of his fame by his leadership working with this group. The job lasted about 10 years before Hine accepted an offer with the American Red Cross taking pictures of the aftermath of World War I. By 1930, Hine "began the most daring assignment of his career. He was hired to photograph the step-by-step construction of what would be the world's tallest building - the Empire State Building in New York City." (Freedman)
When the Great Depression of the 1930's came about, Hine had much trouble finding a job to support his family. In 1939, his wife died. On November 3, 1940, Hine died, poor and forgotten. It wasn't until after his death that Hine was recognized for his leadership and the great legacy he left behind for photo journalists, protesters, and all Americans.
(Lewis) "Hine's equipment was somewhat outdated even by 1904 standards. He used a simple box-type 5 x 7- inch view camera, an old fashioned bulb shutter, glass-plate negatives, and a magnesium flash powder for illumination. He would set the camera on its rickety wooden tripod, focus the lens, insert the glass plate, dust his flashpan with powder, and with his own gestures and looks try to encourage the pose and expressions he wanted. Then he would raise the flashpan into the air and ignite the powder." (Freedman 15)