LEWIS WICKES HINE
Icarus Atop the Empire State Building 1931
george eastman house, rochester, new york
hands: david wooters, 3.4.93

In 1933 Lewis Hine sent photographs of the construction of the Empire State Building to Survey, a magazine that had published his work for 20 years. Its new art director, however, found his pictures old-fashioned. Hine wrote to defend himself against the woman’s preference for abstract design: “I have a conviction that the design registered on the human face through years of life and work is more vital for purposes of permanent record than the geometric patterns of light and shadow that serve so often as mere photographic jazz.”