20th Century Magnum Documentary Photograph

"The Climb"
[Original Artstor caption: "Soldiers Climbing Poles"]
By: Lewis W. Hine

The photograph I chose to analyze was taken by well-known documentary photographer Lewis W. Hine in 1917.  Hine famously used photography as a tool for social commentary to raise public awareness about various issues plaguing the United States in the early 20^th century, so this photograph struck me as being quite different.  Instead of interacting with his subject by posing them to face him--and thus the camera, and the viewer of the photograph—in this case he is merely an observer.  He creates a very geometric image with the harsh lines of the barren landscape, the simple buildings, the telephone wires, and of course, the pole that is perfectly centered within the frame.  However, this centerpiece appears unexpectedly curved compared to the sharp lines found throughout the rest of the image.  Even the shadow cast on the ground appears as a straighter line than the pole, which strangely seems to bend away from the soldier as he mounts it.  

For a documentary photograph of a soldier taken during World War I, I was struck by the qualities of the image that verge on pictorialism; from the clearly deliberate composition, to the strangely serene sense of calm communicated through the starkness of the landscape, and most obviously, the unusual lightness that dominates the left side of the photograph like an apparition.  It is difficult to determine if this is the result of something that occurred as the image was captured, during the development process, or if it is an example of damage that the photograph sustained at a later date, though I suspect it is not the latter.  Whatever the case, Hine has created an example of War photography that is equally as haunting as images that more bluntly depict the horrors of war.  There is not a weapon or a dead soldier in sight, but the photograph makes the viewer ponder the possibility, which is undeniably Hine's intention.