Sun Write Fun Nonfiction Kidlit Contest 2023

​I didn't think I'd enter this year, but it turns out that Sun Write Fun is irresistible!

​The theme for 2023 is "dreams," which immediately brought to mind on of the most important photographers of the 20th century - Lewis W. Hine.  Read my entry below and check out all the other great contest pieces on Karen Greenwald's blog here. 

THE LIGHT DREAMER:
HOW LEWIS W. HINE & HIS CAMERA
​HELPED END CHILD LABOR

by Carrie Karnes-Fannin
​
His camera was old and heavy, 
a thing of the past. 
​
Deep in a mine,  
he found a boy working in the dark. 
In a burst of light, Lewis took his picture.   

As the photo developed, 
birds glowed from the paper floating in the pan--
chalk birds drawn by the boy on a door. 
  
Lewis called the drawings "hieroglyphics,"  
symbols he couldn't read. 
 
He'd once dreamed of being an artist.
​Maybe the boy did too. 
Those dreams deserved to see the light. 

Could light change lives?
Lewis was determined to try.
 
Wanting to keep the world in the dark, 
bosses barred Lewis from their mills
​and factories. 

To get inside, 
Lewis pretended he was a salesman
and wrote the children's names in a secret notebook.

People complained -
​they were tired of seeing child labor pictures. 
"I am too!" Lewis said. 
  
After many years, he grew ill. 
But Lewis' photos kept working. 
 
His dream 
finally came true in 1938, 
when President Franklin Roosevelt signed 
The Fair Labor Standard Act. 
 
Lewis' camera was old and heavy,
a thing of the past. 
 
But through its lens 
Lewis scattered the darkness of child labor,
and brought kids' dreams
into the light.

"Self portrait" by Lewis W. Hine, as the photographer's shadow is seen while capturing a photo of a young "newsie." Source: Library of Congress

"Vance, a trapper boy, 15 years old. Has trapped for several years in a West Virginia coal mine at 75 cents a day for 10 hours work. All he does is to open and shut this door: most of the time he sits here idle, waiting for the cars to come. On account of the intense darkness in the mine, the hieroglyphics on the door were not visible until plate was developed. September 1908. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Source: Library of Congress

Photo by Lewis W. Hine of a a "Spinner", in a Carolina Cotton Mill, 1908. Source: Library of Congress

Lewis W. Hine in later life with his Graflex camera, date unknown.

The Backstory: 

When children worked dangerous jobs for little pay, a teacher-turned-photographer had to act. The bosses wanted to keep the world in the dark, but Lewis W. Hine couldn't rest until his camera brought the truth into the light.

He became an unstoppable activist and in addition to changing child labor laws, Lewis' photographs shaped other documentary photographers such as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.

Even now, Lewis’s photos continue to shape lives, including mine. I grew up in a factory town, the daughter of a factory worker. Thanks in part to Lewis, I spent my childhood reading books and daydreaming instead of stitching shoes or making batteries.  

The Library of Congress holds thousands of Lewis’ stunning child labor photographs - see more of them here. Joe Manning's blog project "Mornings on Maple Street", tracing the history of the children pictured in Lewis's work, is fascinating. Check it out here. 

*all photos on this post are held by the Library of Congress and are in the public domain