Untitled 1908

This small, untitled photograph was taken by Lewis Hine; it’s hard to put a date on it, but it feels like the early 20th century. Hine was all about capturing real life as it happened, without any fancy stuff. What hits me about this image is the texture – not just of the wooden planks behind the girls, but in the subtle gradients of the photograph. Look at the way the light catches the edge of the building, almost like a blurry line in a painting. And those girls’ dresses? You can almost feel the weight of the fabric. The littlest one’s hand, how she’s clutching the older one’s finger, that’s such a small detail, but it tells a whole story. Hine reminds me a bit of Walker Evans, who also had this knack for making the ordinary feel monumental. Both understood that the real magic is in the details, the stuff we usually overlook. With Hine, it’s all about seeing, really seeing, the world around you.