In the first few decades of the 20th century, the social work pioneers leaned heavily on the then new technology of the camera. Ironically, the names of even the leading social photographers are far better known among photographers than among social workers. This article examines the contributions or a few avatars of social photography that were closely connected to the social work pioneers. The career of Paul Kellogg, a social work pioneer who was most associated with social photography, is also briefly examined. Finally, the article suggests that today's social workers should follow the lead of the social work pioneers and use modern technology to put images back into social work campaigns.

Key words: images; modern technology; photographs; pioneers; social photographers

Most Americans educated in the last half of the 20th century are familiar with the photographs taken by the early social photographers. The stark, blunt photographs of New York's poor, taken by Jacob Riis, the carefully composed and biting images of working children and Ellis Island immigrants created by Lewis Hine, and the compelling portraits of depression migrants taken by Dorothea Lange, have entered the nation's collective memory through magazines, history books, and films (Trachtenberg, 1989). Many of the more notable social photographers were also avid social reformers who worked closely with many social work pioneers.

One of the strategies commonly used by key figures in social work's history was their effective use of images. In the first few decades of the 20th century, the profession's pioneers leaned heavily on the then new technology of the camera (Squires, 1991). Early social work leaders recognized that wedding the data accumulated through their investigations and surveys to sensitive drawings and photographs made their presentations more powerful (Kellogg, 1914; Squires, 1991). However, the strong links between early social work and social photograph is a piece of the profession's legacy that is in danger of being lost.

Jacob Riis was a famous author and reform crusader of the 1880s and 1890s, who wrote a poignant description of life in New York's seamier tenements. Riis worked and collaborated with prominent social work reformers including Lillian Wald, Jane Addams, and Paul Kellogg (Chambers, 1971). Lewis Hine, the creator of a remarkable collection of images documenting working class life in the early 20th century, worked for both Florence Kelly at the Child Labor Committee and Kellogg at Survey, the social work journal (Gutman, 1967). Roy Stryker, head of the Farm Service Administration (FSA) photography team, worked his way through college as a settlement house resident. Hine taught Stryker how to mix images and text and Kellogg helped Stryker publicize the photographs his team was collecting (Hurley, 1972). Dorothea Lange, a prominent social photographer of the 1930s, was the daughter of a social worker and the wife of a relief official (Curtis, 1989). Consequently, she was well aware that her work with "dust bowl" migrants was a powerful reform tool. Her photographs of the rural refugees were largely responsible for the creation of public services to help these people (Time-Life, 1972). Lange's (1936) early work with migrants was published in Survey Graphic and she continued to contribute photo essays for that publication throughout the decade (Curtis, 1989).

By the general definitions of their day, some of the early social photographers were social workers. Ironically, the names of even the leading social photographers are far better known in photography than in social work (Guimond, 1991). This situation needs to be changed. Not only did these individuals play important roles in social work's history, their work exemplified how social work can make its contemporary campaigns more effective through the use of images. What follows is a brief examination of the contributions of some early social photographers who were closest to social work and who believed that their reform impulses were as much a part of their photographs as were their skills at composition and printmaking (Goldberg, 1991).

A man cannot be expected to live like a pig and vote like a man.

Jacob Riis was a reformer and a pioneer in the field now known as documentary photography. He began using photography in the late 1880s to accompany his descriptions of the sordid conditions in the slums of New York City (Riis, 1890). He took photographs for only 10 years and claimed he was awkward with the techniques of photography. Many say his images project a power and sense of intimacy that is unique (Alland, 1974). Riis's photography becomes all the more remarkable when we remember that his equipment was quite intrusive. All of his images were taken with a bulky tripod camera and many required the use of a flashlight, a dangerous contraption that more closely resembled a flare gun than today's flashlight (Guimond, 1991). His campaigns covered issues that included many of the early social work causes such as public health, child labor, and overcrowded tenements. Eventually he abandoned photography and devoted all of his time to reform activities. At his lectures, Riis used lantern slides of his most convincing photographs to emphasize major points (Alland, 1974).

Jacob Riis immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1870. After years of extreme poverty and hardship, he finally found employment as a police reporter for the New York Tribune in 1877. In the 1880s he began working in New York's most crowded slums (Guimond, 1991). His most popular book, How the Other Half Lives, was published in 1890. It was a pivotal work that precipitated much needed reforms in the tenements and made him famous. Theodore Roosevelt held Riis in very high esteem, calling him, "the most useful citizen of New York" (Alland, 1974, p. 33) and offering him positions of power and influence in his administration. Instead, Riis continued advocating for the less fortunate, producing books on the plight of poor children, immigrants, and tenement dwellers (Goldberg, 1991). When Riis died in 1914, a New York settlement house was named after him (Alland, 1974). The Jacob Riis photography collection is one of the most popular in America and the images are used extensively by writers, educators, and journalists (Alland, 1974).

In viewing these prints I find myself identified with the people photographed. I am walking in their alleys, standing in their rooms and sheds and workshops, looking in and out their windows. And they in turn seem to be aware of me.

The Human Spirit is the thing, after all ...

Lewis Hine was an unusually gifted photographer whose images conveyed his subjects' individuality and humanity. His pictures project an authenticity that became a highly effective lever for reform (Hine, 1909). Hine was from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In 1901, after studying at the University of Chicago, he took a position at New York's Ethical Culture School. While he was teaching there, Hine began to explore photography as an aid to his teaching and as an expression of his social conscience (Gutman, 1967). After graduating from New York University in 1905, Hine began his career in "sociological photography" with the National Child Labor Committee where he worked with such social work icons as Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, and Lillian Wald (Curtis, 1984). In 1907 Hine joined Kellogg's team of social workers on the Pittsburgh Survey, a study funded by the Russell Sage Foundation to report on the daily lives of Pittsburgh's working people. This assignment led to a lifelong collaboration with social workers and the social work journal Survey (Chambers, 1971). From this time through the beginnings of World War I, Hine traveled the country for both Survey and the Child Labor Committee, documenting industry's exploitation of women and children. His dignified pictures of immigrants and children were used to blunt the early 20th century stereotype of the new immigrants as second-class citizens (Guimond, 1991).

Hine often wrote the reports that accompanied his images and believed strongly that his pictures were but a piece of the puzzle. He felt that his images were most convincing when combined with carefully crafted captions and narratives (Guimond, 1991). At the 1909 National Conference on Charities and Corrections Hine explained, "When a photograph is sympathetically interpreted the result can be a powerful lever for social uplift" (Hine, 1909, p. 356). Hine's work was greatly valued by the young social work profession. He eventually contributed to more than 200 articles for the social work journals Survey and Survey Graphic, covering a broad array of subjects, including Hull House, steel workers, and African Americans (Gutman, 1967).

After Hine documented the plight of refugees for the Red Cross in World War I, he became an independent social photographer, taking assignments for a variety of agencies and publications. In 1930 Hine was hired to document the building of the Empire State Building. Although Hine's work received a great deal of positive attention from the critics, like many artists, he had a difficult time supporting himself during the Great Depression. Hine died in 1940, destitute and on relief (Gutman, 1967).

What you have here are a bunch of sociologists with cameras.

Roy Stryker was not a photographer. In fact, he took pride in telling people about his awkwardness with even a simple box camera (Stryker, 1973). Roy Stryker was from a rural Kansas family. He worked his way through Columbia University as a resident of the Union Settlement House (Hurley, 1972). While a student at Columbia, he caught the attention of a prominent agricultural economist and stalwart New Dealer Rexford Tugwell. After graduating, Stryker taught economics at Columbia University and edited the illustrations for one of Tugwell's books. Many of the book's images came from the camera of Hine. Hine also tutored Stryker on how to most effectively use his photographs (Hurley, 1972).

Stryker became a protege of economist and stalwart New Dealer Rexford Tugwell. The young Stryker was initially assigned the task of publicizing the good deeds being performed by the agency's programs and staff, thereby muting some of the criticisms being mounted against the agency by forces inside and outside the government. Initially, the agency photographers and photographs were only a part of this larger mission (Stryker, 1973). Stryker believed, however, that images were crucial to this assignment and assembled the agency's photographers into a central division. He then began assigning the photographers various scripts, which would give their work a central purpose and perspective. Within a short time, his vision was enlarged to documenting the whole panoply of American rural life (O'Neal, 1976). Working with only a small band of talented photographers, Stryker created one of the richest visual archives of American life every recorded (Guimond, 1991). In a New Deal reorganization, Stryker's new team of photographers was shifted into the FSA. Consequently, the photographs collected by Stryker and his team have become known as the FSA Photographs (Stryker, 1973).

When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, he appointed Tugwell as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, and in 1935 Tugwell was appointed director of Farm Resettlement Administration, an experimental program designed to help small farmers (Hurley, 1972). After a series of part-time positions helping his mentor, Stryker was appointed by Tugwell to head the Information Division of the FSA. Stryker quickly assembled a talented team of photographers that included Arthur Rothstein, Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, Ben Shahn, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Marion Post Walcott, John Vachon, and Gordon Parks (Curtis, 1989).

Stryker was the team leader. He defended his budget from an often unsympathetic Congress. He provided the photographers with scripts and insisted that the photographers understand the economic and cultural context of their photographic subjects. He also encouraged journalists and social scientists to use the photographs to educate the public (O'Neal, 1976). Stryker's team assembled a collection of images that was a remarkable social commentary. These images quickly became an important tool for social justice advocates during the middle and late 1930s (Trachtenberg, 1989).

As early as 1935 the FSA collection was being used to illustrate articles in Survey Graphic (Hurley, 1972). In the summer of 1936, Survey Graphic featured a two-page portfolio of Dorothea Lange's pictures of sharecroppers, which included the now famous "Migrant Madonna." Between 1935 and 1940, Survey Graphic featured FSA photographs in eight articles. During this same period more than 14 books used illustrations from the FSA collection (Hurley, 1972). Most of the FSA photographers continued their careers in photography and have become icons in their field. The FSA Photograph Collection is one of the most widely used sets of images in the public domain. It continues to be used in documentaries and social commentaries about America's rural past (Trachtenberg, 1989).

I was compelled to photograph as a direct response to what was around me. It went just absolutely in the blind staggers.

Often referred to as the mother of the FSA group, Dorothea Lange stands out as the FSA photographer who was most closely connected to the advocacy-reform traditions of Hine and Riis. She was raised in New York City by her mother, who was both a single parent and a social worker (Hurley, 1972). Lange, fully understood the social reform implications of her work and frequently collaborated with her husband, Paul Taylor, who was both an administrator and investigator for the California Relief Agency (Curtis, 1989). Her acumen as a portrait photographer was well established before the Great Depression, but as refugees from the nation's dust bowl began appearing in California, Lange turned to illustrating the darker side of the human condition (O'Neal, 1976). Her first such photograph, The White Angel Bread Line was taken at a soup kitchen outside her studio. The photograph received so much favorable publicity for both herself and the migrants that she was hired to document rural social problems for the California Relief Agency (Hurley, 1972).

Lange's work with the "other half" appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, including Survey, before she joined the FSA group. Some experts contend that it was Lange's early works that inspired Tugwell and Stryker to create the photography group and that her early perspective helped shape the FSA viewpoint--stark but dignified--that is a hallmark of the collection (Curtis, 1989). In the middle and late 1930s she and her husband collaborated on several articles for Survey (Taylor, 1935) and wrote American Photographs (1939), a compelling book on the plight of migrant workers (Trachtenberg, 1989). Lange's photograph Migrant Madonna is arguably the most famous of all the FSA photographs and appeared in Survey Graphic in 1936 (Lange, 1936). After the Great Depression, Lange continued her commitment to dispossessed people. She photographed the Japanese American internment camps during World War II and after the war documented the complex lives of poor people in Africa, Asia, and South America (Hurley, 1972).

The common link between early social work and the social photographers was social work pioneer Paul Kellogg, editor of the profession's early publications, Charity, Charity and the Commons, Survey, and Survey Graphic. Kellogg edited social work's first journal, Charities, and took over as chief editor a few years after that publication changed its name to Survey in 1912 (Kellogg, 1909). When he was first employed by the journal Charities, Kellogg was a young social worker who had been a reporter for a small midwestern newspaper. His early education in social work included courses at the New York School of Philanthropy and a summer tutorial by Jacob Riis (Chambers, 1971).

One of the pivotal events in early social work and in Kellogg's career was the Pittsburgh Survey of 1907. The Pittsburgh Survey, funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, provided a detailed report on the lives of Pittsburgh's working people. The project lasted more than a year. The study was published in six volumes, quickly becoming a model for social work research. The Pittsburgh Survey not only documented city life through written reports, but also relied heavily on the photographs of Hine and the drawings of Joseph Stella (Chambers, 1971). The success of the Pittsburgh Survey raised the prestige of the young social work profession dramatically and was partly responsible for the decision to change the social work journal's name from Charity and the Commons to Survey (Kellogg, 1909). In 1921 Kellogg created Survey Graphic, a reform magazine that used art and images even more extensively than did Survey (Devine, 1939).

Browsing through the old issues of Kellogg's publications is a revelation. The early issues of Survey and later Survey Graphic reflect the breadth and comprehensive interests of the early social workers. Essays and pictorials on unemployment and discussions about issues such as prohibition and international relations are combined with details about child welfare work and adoption. Kellogg carefully avoided using articles that used language he considered too pretentious, setting an example many wish more current social work publications would follow (Chambers, 1971). Kellogg did not only use art and photographs to accompany the text; often the images were the story. He put together photo essays that were decades ahead of their time. He used images in ways that helped tell the story without succumbing to the danger of pandering to the visual senses (Hine, 1936; Kellogg, 1914).

Kellogg's relationship with Hine was strong and lasting. His publications featured both Hine's photographs of industrial workers and pictures of rural life in the 1920s and 1930s (Hine, 1936). In 1939, realizing that the failing Hine was in desperate straights, Kellogg along with Stryker and the famous photographers Paul Strand and Alfred Stieglitz helped Hine organize his most successful exhibit. Although the exhibit was not financially successful, it was highly acclaimed by critics. Kellogg was still sending the old photographer checks right to Hine's death in 1940 (Trachtenberg, 1977). Kellogg also was one of the first to use Lange's photographs of "dust bowl" migrants (Taylor, 1935). As the FSA project began, Survey Graphic, was an early and dependable outlet for many FSA photographs. Kellogg regularly consulted with Stryker on how to best use the images he was collecting and even about what subjects to assign to his photographers (Hurley, 1972).

As Kellogg's social work publications matured, they were aimed at the center of the profession. There were articles about the "nuts and bolts," as it were, of social work practice, but the bulk of the writing and graphics were devoted to more general issues and reform crusades that related to all social workers--whether they were working in public welfare, psychiatric clinics, or schools (Chambers, 1971). He used his understanding of images and artists to give life and dimension to the problems and events confronting the social work profession (Hine, 1936; Kellogg, 1914; Lange, 1936). Kellogg's masterful use of photographs and art serves as an exemplar for the profession as it prepares to enter the next century.

Social work's centennial celebration has been helpful in getting social workers back in touch with the issues and personalities that shaped the profession. There is much to learn from the examples set by the social work pioneers; their sensitivity to injustice, their tolerance for the foibles surrounding the human condition, and their appreciation for the larger context of social problems are just a few of many admirable characteristics shared by the early social workers that we could all emulate. A re-examination of how early social workers used images in their campaigns can help today's social workers exploit modern technologies, such as video and the Internet, in the profession's current crusades. Social workers today have largely abandoned media-rich presentations, relying instead on statistics, tables, and--all too often--turgid essays. Consequently, much of the emotion is lacking in our appeals, and this diminishes the important mission of educating the public. Most important, our advocacy for such groups as the poor and homeless has been less powerful.

A unique element of the social work profession has been its ability to blend skill technique, and theory with art. The word "art" refers to the emotional component of social work practice that is essential for success. Feelings are just as essential to the understanding of social problems as they are to understanding individual instances of domestic violence or homelessness. For example, local studies of homelessness should include respectful photographs of homeless families and individuals in the same vein as those used by Lange. Reports of local housing problems could include photographs of conditions similar to those used by Riis in his photograph-studded surveys of tenements in New York City. Adding visual elements to our communications will help professional social workers move beyond communicating with other experts and social workers and reach the wider audience that the social work advocacy mission demands.

Social work educators will find unique challenges associated with teaching students how to effectively add images to their work. Students need to be taught how to use video feedback to sharpen their group and individual skills and how to use video images in their reports on local social problems. Students need to learn how to search the Internet and World Wide Web for information about policy and case planning problems, but they should also be taught how to make web pages about their agencies and the problems challenging their clients. This effort will require that social work educators learn new skills in video technology and computers or that they develop interdisciplinary classes and collaborate with such diverse fields as art and communication.

Social workers need to create new ways of communicating with each other and the public. Essays and reports should link to images, sounds, and music media that inject the emotional context that is such a crucial component of all social problems. Fortunately, we have even more tools to work with than the early pioneers enjoyed. We can use photographs, which continue to be robust aids, as well as videos, computers, and the Internet. The World Wide Web has tremendous potential. The Web is capable of integrating tables, text, images, and audio, and it is inexpensive. At the 1909 Conference of Charities and Corrections, photographer Lewis Hine stated, "The greatest advance in social work is to be made by the popularizing of camera work, so these records may be made by those who are in the thick of the battle" (p. 356). His advice rings as true today as it did 90 years ago.

"Street Arabs in Night Quarters" Jacob Riis. Library of Congress.

"Ellis Island" Lewis Hine. Library of Congress.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Jacob Riis. Library of Congress.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): "Prayer-time in the nursery-Five Points House of Industry" Jacob Riis. Library of Congress.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): "Breaker Boys" Lewis Hine. Library of Congress.

"Standing in a bread line" Walker Evans. Library of Congress.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): "Dust Storm" Arthur Rothstein. Library of Congress.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): "Migrant Madonna .... She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and the birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it." Dorothea Lange. Library of Congress

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Original article received June 2, 1998

Final revision received August 6, 1998

Accepted August 24, 1998

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By Daniel D. Huff

Daniel D. Huff, is professor, School of Social Work, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID 83725. Send correspondence to the author at: The History Station. Professor Huff is the author or a book on social work history to be published by NASW Press.