As you view each photograph take note about what you see. (note people, background, objects) Pretend you were describing the image to someone who could not see it. Try to avoid making judgments.
Where are these children? List any clues relating to their surroundings. Describe any tools or objects you see. Describe their clothing. What do their clothes reveal about their work?
Subjective Assessment
What questions do you have about each of these photographs?
Based on your observations, list three things you might infer about the lives of these children. (Be sure to consider Hine's notes about the photographs when considering this.)
Photograph A- In this photograph, there is a young girl about 51 inches tall working in the Whitnel Cotton Mill, most likely at the age of 12. She appears to be terror-stricken by the expression on her face, which makes me think she doesn't like her job, and maybe because since it looks like she isn't working, she is frightened that she might get caught taking a short break for the first time in her working career. She is also wearing unquestionably formal and ill-fitting clothing, which shows she not only is forced to work hard, but she is forced to wear vexatious clothing, which might make her dislike her job even more.
Photograph B- In this photograph, there are 5 girls around the age of 16, who look to be narcoleptic and woebegone due to their droopy expressions and hunched-over bodies. As tired as they look, I assume that they have just done some hard, scrupulous work. Because there is close to nothing that appears around them, it makes me wonder what kind of work they have been doing and why they look so depressed.
Photograph C- In this photograph, there is an extremely young girl, standing in the cotton mill. She is without shoes, and is wearing very ruggedy clothing. Hine says that the manager said she just walked in and started working, but because she seems to have grown accustomed to the facility, I assume that she was forced to work there and the overseer is just making that up to avoid looking bad.
Photograph D- In this photograph, there is a young child (male) on the street trying to sell newspapers to the people who walk by him. He looks to be very sad and he is wearing old, nasty clothing. The people currently walking by him don't seem to take even the quickest glance at him, causing him not to sell many papers.
Photograph E- In this photograph, there are about 20 boys working in a coal factory, who look slumped over and depressed due to their hard and tedious work. They have the urge to keep working as hard as they can because they are being watched and if they don't do what they are supposed to do they will be kicked into obedience. The dense dust in the air causing very serious and unhealthy working conditions, which makes their work seem even harder to complete.
Photograph F- In this photograph, there are about 8 teenage boys working in an Indiana Glass Works at the time of 9 pm. Some of the boys seem to be hard at work while others are fooling around, not doing their work. While this makes them seem unprofessional, it is most likely the only time they can slack off as it is late and they probably are not being watched. The boys all seem to be tired and depressed, which shows that their jobs must be long and monotonous. And because of their very raggedy clothing, they must not be getting much money for the hard work they are doing.
Photograph G- In this photograph, there are about 40-50 people oyster shucking, ranging from the ages of 5-45. All the people seem to be hard at work, while the youngest of the children look tired, as they can't do such long, hard work at such a young age. When I see this picture, It makes me sad because when I think about 5 year olds being forced to oyster shuck, I think that society was horrible back then and I would definitely not wanna live during that time period.
Photograph H- In this photograph, there are about 10 people going to work the night shift in a mill, who are expected to work from 6pm to 6am the next morning. Everyone in the photograph seems to not want to be there, as I'm sure they would much rather be home getting ready to go to sleep. It must be very cold, because if you look closely, you can see that almost everyone is wearing rather heavy clothing. The cold working conditions most likely makes their jobs a lot harder and makes them even more tired at the end of work.
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