Soulmaker: THE TIMES OF LEWIS HINE To its guest curator

Soulmaker: THE TIMES OF LEWIS HINE To its guest curator Professor Alexander Nemerov, this exhibition and his eponymous book are a meditation on the test of time and an unprecedented tribute to the creator of some of the world’s most iconic images. While Hine’s photographs in this collection are of kids at work, Nemerov intended to zoom in on their metaphysical aspects instead. “The chance for this to … read as another show of photographs of child labor is … high,” he says. “So we [had] to think about how to present this.” From 1908 to 1917, Hine traveled to the South, the Midwest, and New England to take pictures for the National Child Labor Committee, which fought to affect change in legislation so as to prohibit employing children. In this exhibition, however, Nemerov wanted to shift the focus to the individuals on either side of the lens, encapsulated in the artist’s work. “The world does not need another show about Lewis Hine and child labor,” he says. “So, my book and the show are about Lewis Hine and time.” Hine’s shots hang alongside those by photographer Jason Francisco, who, on his own exploratory journey, with some help from Nemerov, rediscovered these locations. The juxtaposition of photographs of these places with those from a century earlier invites a close look at what’s remained and what’s vanished. A cigarette factory may have turned into an apartment building, but the ghostly quality about these sites is the one constant, evident in the haunting images. “You … feel like you’re in the presence of something that’s living. It’s magical,” Nemerov says. “When you take a photograph, you get to keep that moment forever.” No matter how their respective narratives unfold, deep down, the pictures’ subjects will always be these kids without a childhood. The photographer has captured their spirits, and thus, they soldier on, defying time. Hence the title of this exhibition. These images are the Platonic quintessence, the collective face of child labor. Though that is part of their power, by presenting them as more than mere documents, Soulmaker celebrates Lewis Hine the artist. “He’s gotten their souls. And there’s something … vampiric about it,” Nemerov says. “You have to be terrifying to be a good artist. … They’re the people who have some kind of awareness of what it is to be alive … and are somehow able, through the medium and through their own sensibility combined, to discover that.” In a way, Nemerov sees these images as Hine’s self-portrait. These children burned out, working to illuminate the darkness for future generations. “These photographs are about catastrophe, tragedy. An artist this passionate is able to burn … himself up … with his own commitment to portraying the way the world burns.” This metaphor cannot but spark a conversation about these pictures as they brand themselves into viewers’ minds. Captured souls transcend prints. The vastness of time is one of many colors on the photographers’ palette.

Soulmaker: The Times of Lewis Hine A meditation on time and the metaphysical aspects of photography, this exhibition juxtaposes the iconic pictures Lewis Hine took for the National Child Labor Committee a hundred years ago with contemporary images by Jason Francisco. With support from the Halperin Exhibitions Fund, this presentation is organized by the Cantor Arts Center and guest-curated by Alexander Nemerov, Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University. May 21–October 24 Ruth Levison Halperin Gallery