The Caption
So far, another big clue about this photograph has been completely left out. You have been looking at this picture without the caption. Captions can give you very important information about a photograph, but you have to be careful when reading captions. Sometimes captions in books are not about the photograph. They are about the text. For example, someone might write a caption for this photograph like, "Child labor at the turn of the century was an important issue." That caption tells us something about child labor, but does it tell you more about the photograph? No! When you read a caption, look for specific facts about the image. Doublecheck those facts with the details you've found in the picture. Does the caption above fit this image? It should. That's the caption the photographer wrote when he took the picture.
You learn from the caption that the person who took this photograph was named Lewis Hine.
So you know who took the photograph. But why did he take it?
If you looked him up, you'd find that Lewis Hine took thousands of photographs of children working. He worked for the National Child Labor Committee. The National Child Labor Committee wanted the government to pass laws protecting children who worked and to make sure that children went to school. So, you know that the children in this picture are working, or are about to start working. You know it is not a special occasion (other than the fact that the photographer is there taking their picture.) These boys do this every day. This is a social documentary photograph. Lewis Hine took this picture to show that children should not be working so hard. Does knowing this change the way you look at this picture? Do you think Lewis Hine said, "Say cheese!" when he took this picture? Probably not.
Now you have learned the facts about this picture. Combine these facts with the history you know. Have you read about children working? Have you heard of newsboys? Can you imagine their lives? Who are these boys? What are their lives really like? If you look closely at part of the picture, you might be able to get a better idea.
