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Art News 

LEWIS W. HINE

Elizabeth McCausland

The 200 photographs included in Lewis W. Hine's retrospective exhibition, on view at the Riverside Museum from January 11 to February 26, offer [[strikethrough]] an [[/strikethrough]] imposing testimony to the truth that art may use a mechanical medium and contain realistic subject matter, and yet shock the beholder with profound esthetic impact. Ellis Island, child labor. men at work, conditions of life in slums and sweatshops are the main categories into which the prints are divided. [[strikethrough]] But amazing [[/strikethrough]] From 1905 to 1938 the rows of photographs in the three main floor galleries unfold their chronicle of life in America.

[[strikethrough]] Almost with the excess of [[/strikethrough]] Hine's work has been canvassed for its [[strikethrough]]social [[/strikethrough]] sociological significance and practical usefulness. Not until it is on the wall, is one able to assess the full plastic value of the photographs. Accidents of the medium's technical qualities and limitations of the photographer's equipment produced effects which he learned how to control for a double purpose, social and esthetic. In the early photographs of child labor, showing children working at home at night, [[strikethrough]] Labor [[/strikethrough]] making artificial flowers or shelling nuts, the forms of flowers and shells have been utilized to enhance the scene's meaning. Perspectives slightly distorted by the [[strikethrough]] e [[/strikethrough]] indispensable wide-angle lens also fitted into this system of composition. Simplifications of lighting and modeling, caused by the use of flashlights or insufficient light (as underground in the coal mines,) also played their [[strikethrough]] part [[/strikethrough]] role in creating an art congenial to its theme and to its are. -- am art, moreover, which