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Lewis Hine — Italian Family Looking for Lost Baggage, Ellis Island, New York
Lewis Hine

Italian Family Looking for Lost Baggage, Ellis Island, New York

A weathered Italian immigrant family stands amid the bustling chaos of Ellis Island, their expressions etched with anxiety and exhaustion as they search for misplaced belongings. Hine's masterful use of light and shadow in this gelatin silver print captures the vulnerability and resilience of those navigating the daunting immigration process in early twentieth-century America. The image serves as both a intimate human document and a powerful social record of the immigrant experience.

Medium
Gelatin silver print, probably printed 1920s.

🔨 Auction Lot

Photographs

October 8, 2015

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About this work

Lewis Hine, Italian Family Looking for Lost Baggage, Ellis Island, New York

A weathered Italian immigrant family stands amid the bustling chaos of Ellis Island, their expressions etched with anxiety and exhaustion as they search for misplaced belongings. Hine's masterful use of light and shadow in this gelatin silver print captures the vulnerability and resilience of those navigating the daunting immigration process in early twentieth-century America. The image serves as both a intimate human document and a powerful social record of the immigrant experience.

Medium
Gelatin silver print, probably printed 1920s.
Seen at
Phillips, New York, London, Hong Kong

Related themes

Melancholic Mood, Portrait Format, Humanist Photography, Documentary Photography, Early 20th Century, Immigration Subject, Portraiture, Gelatin Silver Print, American Photographer, Historical Documentation, Somber Mood, Black and White, Immigrant Experience, Social Realism

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