Camera and conscience

In 1934, a group of ardent admirers published America & Alfred Stieglitz, a eulogy of such Whitmanesque hyperbole that it is almost embarrassing to recall that Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) was still very much alive, and would, indeed, live on for another decade, well nourished by such loving encomiums. By contrast, the fate of his contemporary Lewis Hine (1874–1940), a documentarian of genius and human compassion matched only by David Octavius Hill, John Thomson, Thomas Annan, or Jacob Riis, was a study in cruel neglect. America & Lewis Hine, mimicking the title of the Stieglitz book even to the ampersand, and perhaps selected as a duplicating title in angry and justifiable reproach, seems a tragically belated effort to elevate Hine to the highest pantheon of the demigods of photography

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