Untitled 1908

This small gelatin silver print was made by Lewis Hine, though the date is not known. The grey tones set the scene: three young girls in front of a clapboard building. I imagine Hine observing the scene and framing it just so. Click, the image comes into being. I think of Hine's dedication to documenting social issues, like child labor. I try to empathize, to imagine what it might have been like to be Hine, witnessing and capturing these moments. Look at the youngest girl holding the hand of the older one. You can almost feel the connection, the weight of responsibility. It's as if, across time, we're in a conversation about society, about how we treat each other. It's like a photograph can be a form of embodied expression, speaking to us even now. I find that photography invites us to look closer, to think deeper, to draw our own conclusions, to embrace uncertainty and ambiguity.