Here and Gone: Lewis Hine in Tennessee

July 22- October 22, Gallery 118

Featured Image: Lewis Wickes Hine (American, 1874–1940), A group showing some of the men working at Norris Dam site (abbr), 1933, silver gelatin print; Gift of Charles E. Hoffman, 1977.22.2, .29, .17

Lewis Wickes Hine (1874–1940), one of the most celebrated social documentary photographers of all time, is best known for capturing children at work in factories. Hine’s photographs were integral in passing child labor laws in the United States.

Here and Gone showcases photographs Hine created for the Tennessee Valley Authority as it aimed to address social welfare in the Tennessee River Valley in the wake of the Great Depression. Hine’s black and white documentary photographs depict the rural farming communities that lived in this region and the people that would be displaced and places destroyed by the creation of a new dam. Hine captured the many facets of daily life as well as the beginning phases of dam construction but the scenes he captured for the TVA were criticized by the Chairman as “too creative” and Hine left after only working there for one month.

Hine helped to establish the field and practice of documentary photography and sought to present his subjects in a way that shared information persuasively.