Rosa Baez - Lewis Hine’s exhibition: Building a nation

Lewis Hine's self-portrait

Last weekend I had the chance to see the Lewis Hine exhibition placed in San Benito Gallery in Valladolid.

Lewis Hine (1874-1940) was an American sociologist and photographer, considered the father of documentary photography. He took his pictures in the USA, mainly in New York, in the first third of the 20th century.

He realized that “one picture is worth a thousand words” and used his camera as a tool for social reform, so much so that he finally managed to change some labour laws.

The exhibition, which consists of 60 original photos, can be divided into three collections or projects:

First Collection: Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island

At the beginning of the 20th century, New York was the most important city in the world, so many people from overseas left their countries pursuing the American Dream.

Ellis Island is next to the Statue of Liberty, where boats full of immigrants had to stop in order to control and test them before they were allowed to enter New York.

Some of the photos in this project are portraits: faces alone - their skin prematurely aged - as well as big families with all their humble belongings, who look nostalgic, penniless, sick and tired.

Second Collection: Child labour conditions

Children working in the street, selling newspapers, delivering packages, etc.

Children from Pittsburgh, some of them working in cotton mills, others in coal mines.

It’s very shocking that children look extremely tiny compared to the objects they manufacture, like newspapers, machines or suits.

Along with child labour, there are some photographs that show mothers and their children working in humble, dirty and untidy rooms in their own homes. Even the youngest child, who is no more than five years old, is working. In one particular photograph the family are assembling parts of plastic flowers while in another they are all sewing clothes. We must take into consideration that work at home was a low-paying job.

Third Collection: Men working in the Empire State Building

In these photographs Hine demonstrates his admiration for those strong young men who risked their lives working at hundreds of metres high. They were heroes, without whose effort the building, prosperity and growth of the USA wouldn’t have been possible.

This thrilling, moving and historical exhibition will be open until 27th April. It is a must!

On this video from the BBC you can see some of Lewis Hine’s photographs: The child labour photos that shamed America.

Thanks a lot, Rosa. A fantastic post to celebrate 3,500 hits of our blog! I couldn't remember Hine by his name but the moment you mentioned the iconic image of some Empire State workers (see below), I realised who you were talking about. Such inspiring black-and-white photos, aren't they? But hey, was it a photo during the building of the ES or the Rockefeller Centre, instead? And did Lewis Hines actually take that legendary shot?

The iconic "Lunch atop the the skyscraper". Was it just a publicity stunt?

It's only coincidence that a few months ago I happened to get into a bar in town near Cuesta Sancti Spiritus - whose name I fail to remember now - which featured this instantly recognizable snap as part of its lively decoration. I couldn't help staring at it for a few minutes while sipping a beer and I wondered what was the life story of those men in the photo. But yesterday, when I was looking for the image online, I unexpectedly came across an article of September 2012 appeared in the Daily Mail which might shock you all. It did to me indeed!

Rosa Baez - My favorite film: Life of Pi (A magical tale about trust and faith)

Pi survives 227 days with a Bengali tiger on a lifeboat drifting across the Pacific Ocean. He overcomes this life and death struggle thanks to his trusting, optimistic thoughts: 

First and foremost, he realizes that the tiger is essential for his survival because it keeps him awake and he finds the true meaning of his life by searching for seafood and providing the tiger with it in order to avoid being devoured.  

He also remembers all the life lessons from his family; for instance, his father showed him the tiger’s primal carnivorous instinct while his uncle taught him to swim and not to be afraid of water.

He finds a book on the lifeboat with a wise tip: "Above all, don’t lose hope”, and he sticks to it. He firmly believes that God cares for him although he can’t understand how.

Finally, they both reach the Mexican coast and after Pi recovers his health, he keeps his enthusiasm for life without being spoilt by this hard experience.

This thought-provoking film reminds us that “life is a story and you can choose yours”.

Thanks, Rosa! Indeed "Life of Pi" is a great story as well as a visually stunning movie.  

Since you don't mention a particular scene, let me choose one for you, actually the moment when both Pi and the beautiful (3D animated) tiger - which goes by the funny name of Richard parker - reach the shore of Mexico after their amazing ordeal at sea. So moving!

Rosa Baez: The Great Gatsby

It’s the most important novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, an American novelist famous for his writings of the “Jazz Age”. He portrayed the decadence, hypocrisy and materialism of this period.

The Great Gatsby is set in the summer of 1922 in New York. Gatsby is an elegant man in his thirties. He is from the West, his parents are unsuccessful farmers and he dismisses his real origins, so much so that he changes his real name. He is recruited in World War I and as a soldier he meets Daisy, a nice upper-class girl, who he deeply falls in love with. She can’t marry him because her family is very well-off and she is supposed to marry a wealthy man. She waits for him for two years but finally she marries Tom Buchanan, an affluent , well-known polo player. She isn’t happy since he is violent with her and has endless affairs with other women.

Meanwhile, Gatsby is working hard, surely in illegal businesses and in less than five years he goes from rags to riches. He builds a mansion in Long Island opposite Buchanan’s house, on the other side of the lake.

Gatsby throws fabulous parties in his palatial mansion. On weekends his Rolls Royce turns into kind of a taxi carrying people to and from New York. Guests are not invited, they just attend his parties. There are colored lights, a dance floor on the lawn and an orchestra that plays dance music. Loads of waiters serve all kinds of fine food and alcoholic drinks. There is a general sense of excitement in the air. The guests move about talking, smiling, dancing, eating, drinking and laughing. Gatsby’s extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are simply an attempt to impress Daisy. As a matter of fact, he lives alone and he isn’t interested in the people who attend his parties and neither are they in him, as they only gossip about his fortune.

After an initially awkward meeting, Gatsby and Daisy begin an affair. He isn’t aware of Daisy’s real character since she only bets on winners; Gatsby is an incurable romantic, willing to die for love whereas she doesn’t have a truly profound affection for him.

Finally, he ends up as alone as he lived; he becomes a victim of his own dream. The message is clear: the American Dream doesn’t work, so if you only pursue money your life will be empty.

There are many screen adaptations of this novel. In my opinion, the most famous is directed by Jack Clayton in 1974 , starring Robert Redfort and Mia Farrow, with a script by Francis Ford Coppola. The latest version is from 2013, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Di Caprio and Carey Mulligan.

The Great Gatsby is a must. I strongly recommend you to read the book or to see the film as it is a vivid portrait of the roaring twenties in New York. A thought-provoking masterpiece that raises many interesting questions.

In order to situate all these ideas in the wider context of America in the 1920s, let me give you some basic background information of the period:

- After World War I ended in 1918, the United States and much of the rest of the world experienced an enormous economic expansion.

- The American Dream consisted of the premise that “a nobody from nowhere can amass a great fortune though hard work, sometimes by illegal methods”.  

- The Twenties were a period of general prosperity and social change. Major cities such as New York and Chicago grew rapidly with the building of skyscrapers.

- America began the age of consumerism: new household appliances such as radios, fridges, etc. appeared, and Henry Ford put Americans on wheels with his revolutionary model T Ford, the car everyone could afford to buy. More and more people spent money on traveling and having fun.

- At parties people were listening to new jazz music and dancing Charleston. Girls had a new look: they had short hair, wore colourful dresses showing their knees, used cosmetics, smoked cigarettes, etc.

- In 1919 there was an important ban on alcohol (The Prohibition) and some people, especially gangsters, made enormous amounts of money by suppling it illegally. 

- Although some people made fortunes overnight, many others were living in poverty and racism was tolerated.

-  The carefree life of the “Roaring Twenties” suddenly came to an end on October 29, 1929, when the New York Stock Exchange collapsed dramatically, leading to the start of the Great Depression.

Good stuff, Rosa! I remember reading Scott Fitzgerald's novel many years ago, in my years at uni, and honestly I didn't think much of it. Perhaps I should give it another go! 
But in any case I agree the Roaring Twenties were, for various reasons, a very exciting period from the social, cultural and artistic standpoints, not only in America but across the pond in the UK too.