The FundacionMapfre will be presenting a retrospective of American photographer Lewis Wickes Hine in the Recoletos Hall from February 11 through April 29, 2012. With 170 mostly vintage prints, it is a panorama of Hine’s work, ranging from child labor to immigration at Ellis Island to stories in Europe and the Empire State Building under construction. A majority of the prints are on loan by the George Eastman House (Rochester) in this exhibition curated by Alison Nordström and jointly produced by the Cultural Institute of the FondacionMapfre, the Henri Cartier- Bresson Foundation who presented the exhibition last fall, and the Nederlands Fotomuseum of Rotterdam where it will be featured late 2012.

The exhibition includes previously unreleased documents recently acquired by the George Eastman House that clearly show how Hine used photography to expose misery, unhealthy living conditions, social injustice and illegal labor exploitation in dilapidated sweatshops. A key figure in the history of social photography, he was a precursor in “concerned photography”, a phrase coined by Cornell Capa in the eponymous exhibition held at New York’s Riverside Museum in 1967.

Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940) began taking pictures of his classes while teaching at the Ethical Culture School of New York where Paul Strand was one of his students. In 1908 he began working for the National Child Labor Committee, the Red Cross, and the Works Progress Administration. His illustrious work in the mines covering child labor began during this period, taking him across the country where his portraits of immigrant and child workers would regularly be featured in local newspapers. His work on the construction of the Empire State Building in 1931 would feature diametrically opposed images in an ode to the work ethic. Despite the support of Beaumont Newhall and Berenice Abbott, commissions became more and more infrequent and his photographic style lost its charm. By 1939, the Home Owners Loan Corporation threatened foreclosure on his house; it was repossessed in 1940 shortly after his wife’s death. After being rejected by the MOMA, the entirety of his archives were collected by the Photo League and in 1951, the 7000 prints, 4000 negatives, brochures, catalogs and personal documents were transferred to the George Eastman House.

An exhibition catalog in Spanish, French and English presents an exhaustive selection of Lewis Hine’s work. In addition to the 170 prints featured, the catalog features a text by Alison Nordström and a historic article by Elizabeth McCausland, a member of the Photo League from 1920 through the 1940’s. It also includes a reproduction of Hine’s “Men at Work” (1932), his only book printed during his lifetime.

Bernard Perrine
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.

EXHIBITION
Lewis W.Hine
Until April 29, 2012

FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE
Instituto de Cultura
Paseo de Recoletos no 23
28004 Madrid

CATALOGUE

Published by the Fondacion Mapfre and TF editors