ABSTRACT
Reading photographs seems seductively simple. The truth appears laid out in black and white. The nineteenth-century savant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, called photographs “the mirror with a memory,” suggesting photography’s direct transcription from nature. Because Hine wanted his photographs to stand as truthful documents, not huckster's or propaganda, he recorded basic facts about individual subjects as well as statistical information about social problems such as child labor. The photographer creates in a larger context. Their images appear on gallery and museum walls, in newspapers and magazines, and in reform campaigns, among other venues. Within those contexts, institutions strive to shape the image’s interpretation. Digitization facilitates access to photographs and other archival materials, a boon to students of the past. Given Lange’s repute and the traumas of the Great Depression, a wealth of digitally archived materials exists. The Library of Congress, Photogrammar, and the Calisphere best present Lange’s works.
