Art Institute of Chicago

Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner, Lancaster, South Carolina

Lewis Wickes Hine

Date

1908

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Culture

United States

Department

Photography and Media

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Photography's ability to record people, places, and things has often made it the prized medium for documenting society, from prison mug shots to medical studies to the horrors of child labor. Working for the National Child Labor Committee, Hine used photography as a means to an end, photographing children at work, from lone newsboys to factories full of young laborers. The resulting images were the visual spark to debates about reforming child labor laws. In this, his most famous photograph, a small girl stands before a cotton loom that seems to stretch the length of the room, dwarfing her in scale.

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