AMERICA AND LEWIS HINE (New Video Group, Inc., $24.95)
Narrated by Jason Robards and Maureen Stapleton, this video traces the life and work of Lewis Hine (1874-1940), one of America’s greatest photographers, who documented the changing face of the nation during the first half of the twentieth century. In addition to historic film footage and first-person commentary, the film presents many of Hine’s stunning black-and-white photographs as it traces his career from his introduction to the camera during his early teaching days–he was appointed school photographer,even though he had never handled a camera–through his many trips to photograph newly arrived immigrants on Ellis Island; his work with the privately funded Pittsburgh Survey, the first statistical profile of an American industrial city; his role in documenting the exploitation of children for the National Child Labor Committee; his travels with the Red Cross after World War I recording the devastation caused by the war; and his appointment as official Empire State Building photographer during its construction.
