I can't stop looking at this picture. Maybe if I did, I'd get my dissertation completed...
I am attracted to the handwritten sign (what gorgeous script), the slight blur of some of the people, the kids sitting backwards in the chairs...I can almost see and hear the action taking place. Its interesting that there are almost as many 'officials' as there are 'voyageurs', and I love that they are called 'voyageurs' rather than refugees, though that is what they are. These are Belgian refugees who entered France after the 'German Drive' forcibly displaced them, or drove them out. The language of 'voyageurs' is less a reflection of an attempt at being sympathetic than evidence of the fact that the term 'refugee' was not widely used at the time -- the picture is from 1918, at the tail end of the First World War. This picture bears witness to the 'making of the modern refugee'; read Peter Gatrell's book of the same name to learn more about how WWI manufactured refugeedom, a phenomenon that emerged from this moment and has continues to exist (and amplify) in the century since. That's just some of what I see in this picture. There's much more to be said about how this picture compares to other photography of refugees since Lewis Hine made this exposure, and why what appears to be aesthetic patterning on the part of photographers is really a comment on a pattern of making ever more refugees that has spread globally. Another time. I have to get back to the dissertation. NOTES on the collection from which this picture comes: Lewis W. Hine made this picture while working overseas -- his only project outside of the United States -- for the American Red Cross (ARC). While the war was on, he was tasked with photographing ARC relief activities in and around Paris. From June to November 1918, Hine made about 500 mainly glass plate exposures of public health activities, American soldiers convalescing, ARC warehousing, orphans, and refugees, from which the photograph above is a part. When the war ended, Hine stayed on as the photographer for the ARC's Special Survey Mission that was to make a scientific study of reconstruction and repatriation needs. I'll write about those photographs another time. For more detailed information about the history of this little known collation of Lewis Hine work, see Daile Kaplan's 1988 text: Lewis Hine in Europe: The Lost Photographs. Reference-- Caption: 'Early morning in the courtyard of St. Sulpice. Red Cross captain explaining matters to group of refugees "Sans destination." One woman has 6 children' Creator(s): Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer Date Created/Published: 8 June 1918. Medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-anrc-16403 Library of Congress
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