Which photographer's images helped publicize the plight of child labor and contributed to reform?

• A. Jacob Riis
• B. Lewis Hine
• C. Dorothea Lange
• D. Ansel Adams

Answer: (B)

Photography used as a tool for reform during the Progressive Era. A photographer who specialized in exposing child labor traveled to factories and mines, capturing powerful portraits of children at work. These images, often paired with captions noting ages and locations, put a human face on the statistics and made the issue hard to ignore. Working with the National Child Labor Committee, he toured the country and used his photographs to press for reforms that would restrict child labor and improve working conditions. This combination of striking visuals and organized advocacy helped mobilize public opinion and laid groundwork for later federal child-labor legislation.

Jacob Riis, for example, focused on urban poverty and housing conditions, influencing housing reform, while Dorothea Lange documented the Great Depression and the plight of migrants, contributing to relief and policy responses. Ansel Adams is renowned for landscape photography, not social reform through child-labor imagery. The photographer who publicized child labor and contributed to reform is Lewis Hine.