Lewis Hine Photographs About Prints

Value Hine Index	About these prints
These archivally processed prints, which are being offered for purchase, were produced on a Kodak fiber based paper, Opal G, that’s not been manufactured for many years. Each image was contact printed directly from Hine’s 5x7 inch glass plates through meticulous darkroom techniques. Every image thus contains maximum information with the absolute finest quality obtainable. This set is the third of three made ca. 1963 and may possibly be the only remaining full set. Hine and his assistants usually produced prints as quickly as possible as they were to be used primarily for reproduction in poorly printed newspapers by letterpress but sometimes by gravure, each requiring different quality originals, and books of the times; not for exhibition and collection. By today's standards those prints would most likely be called “work prints.” Most of the plates have been lost or broken. It is interesting to note that in 1994, while going back through dozens of sale catalogs for several years from Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Butterfield’s, it was exceedingly difficult to locate a single Ellis Island image - most being of the Empire State Building construction, street scenes, and people in industrial depictions. Lewis Hine photographs had become very collectable— among the top selling images at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s. This set was exclusively exhibited at the Illustrated Light Gallery in Fort Collins, Colorado, 1991. The gallery was motifed with steamer trunks, old Russian passports, photos of ships of the times, and texts excerpted from descriptions by the immigrants of their treatment within Ellis Island. Materials were loaned by second and third generation immigrants living in Northern Colorado. (The exhibition had been documented with still photographs.) An additional, two days only, exhibition was held at the Enigma Gallery of Cannery Row in Monterey, California, 2003. These wonderful photos have been owned by one person from the day they were specially printed and are now offered to another who recognizes, appreciates, and understands their value. If you are a lover of exquisite, historical photographs, rare photographs, or just wish to invest, you will not be disappointed in this fine set.

About these prints

These archivally processed prints, which are being offered for purchase, were produced on a Kodak fiber based paper, Opal G, that’s not been manufactured for many years. Each image was contact printed directly from Hine’s 5x7 inch glass plates through meticulous darkroom techniques. Every image thus contains maximum information with the absolute finest quality obtainable. This set is the third of three made ca. 1963 and may possibly be the only remaining full set.

Hine and his assistants usually produced prints as quickly as possible as they were to be used primarily for reproduction in poorly printed newspapers by letterpress but sometimes by gravure, each requiring different quality originals, and books of the times; not for exhibition and collection. By today's standards those prints would most likely be called “work prints.” Most of the plates have been lost or broken.

It is interesting to note that in 1994, while going back through dozens of sale catalogs for several years from Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Butterfield’s, it was exceedingly difficult to locate a single Ellis Island image - most being of the Empire State Building construction, street scenes, and people in industrial depictions. Lewis Hine photographs had become very collectable— among the top selling images at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

This set was exclusively exhibited at the Illustrated Light Gallery in Fort Collins, Colorado, 1991. The gallery was motifed with steamer trunks, old Russian passports, photos of ships of the times, and texts excerpted from descriptions by the immigrants of their treatment within Ellis Island. Materials were loaned by second and third generation immigrants living in Northern Colorado. (The exhibition had been documented with still photographs.)

An additional, two days only, exhibition was held at the Enigma Gallery of Cannery Row in Monterey, California, 2003.

These wonderful photos have been owned by one person from the day they were specially printed and are now offered to another who recognizes, appreciates, and understands their value. If you are a lover of exquisite, historical photographs, rare photographs, or just wish to invest, you will not be disappointed in this fine set.