Feb 25, 2016 - Sale 2406

Sale 2406 - Lot 37

Price Realized: $ 20,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
LEWIS W. HINE (1874-1940)
Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner, Lancaster, South Carolina. Silver print, 4 3/4x6 1/2 inches (12.1x16.5 cm.), with a typed caption label with Hine's credit and the date, on mount recto, and with Hine's Interpretive Photography hand stamp on mount verso. 1908; printed 1920s

Additional Details

The caption label on this print reads: "One of the many children at work in Carolina cotton mills--1908. A regular worker,--48 inches high." The text, which reminds us both of the height of the young girl at work--a scant 4 feet--and the fact that she is representative of many ("a regular worker"), works powerfully with Hine's composition, which allows the viewer to see the comparative size of the machine she stands next to and the bleakness of her surroundings. Each element--her head bowed, her hand resting on the machine in front of her, light filtering in from the right--highlights Hine's gift for powerful social documentary.