Mechanic and Micrometer (Primary Title)
Lewis W. Hine, American, 1874 - 1940 (Artist)
Of great interest to Hine in the second half of his career was the interaction between man and machine. He was particularly captivated by images of men working in extreme circumstances: far underground in a mine or dozens of stories above the ground building a skyscraper. Yet as in Mechanic and Micrometer, he also conflated the two, signifying the level of precision required from both. Hine described this mechanic’s “special skill,” as he uses a lathe to trim a steel shaft that “must be accurate to the thousandth of an inch.”
Black ink stamp on verso: "Lewis W. Hine / Interpretaive Photography / Hastings-on-Hudson, New York"
Inscribed in graphite by unknown hand(s) on verso: "Mechanic & Micrometer / Mechanic turning / down a drive(?) shaft / for a big engine. Must / be acccurate to 1/1000 inch", "38", "P" and "72.159.3940"
Virginia Museum Art Purchase Fund
The Likeness of Labor, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, October 17, 2015 - April 10, 2016
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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