NEW YORK, NY.- Lewis Hine’s photography had such an impact that it helped revolutionise child labour laws in in the United States as well as establish a stunning documentary record of the conditions of ordinary working people and migrants.

Now Swann Auction Galleries are to offer 24 of his images that have never been on the market before at their Icons & Images: Photographs and Photobooks sale in New York on February 15. They include some his most iconic views, from the arrival of immigrants at Ellis Island and workers on the construction of the Empire State Building to child workers in the cotton mills of Carolina and, perhaps most famously, the unforgettable Mechanic at Steam Pump in Electric Power House, an image from around 1921 that carries an estimate of $70,000 to $100,000.

Hine (1874-1940) was a sociologist and master documentary photographer who used his camera as a means of highlighting the lives of the poor and disadvantaged in Carolina, New York and Pittsburgh, where he recorded the daily lives of people in the steel-making districts.

When he became photographer to the National Child Labor Committee in 1908, he set out to capture scenes in factories, mills and workshops that would later be used as evidence to clamp down on exploitative practices. Such was the antipathy to him among factory and mill owners employing children that he would often have to go about his work in disguise for fear of his own safety, and indeed he was threatened on numerous occasions.

He coined the term “photo story” to characterize innovative assemblages of pictures and text and, in his letters, articulated a new role for photography as a fine art form.

Swann Galleries’ offering encompasses a broad range of Hine’s work, with prices understandably higher for his more iconic shots, such as those taken hundreds of feet up in a swinging basket as he focused his lens on the construction workers balancing precariously on steel girders as they built the Empire State Building in the late 1920s and early ’30s. Estimates start at $3000.

“These are important and scarce prints, with Hine's hand stamp(s); a few have his handwritten notations and one is signed. A selection of images spanning his entire career is uncommon, and represents a rare opportunity for collectors and curators,” says Swann specialist Daile Kaplan.

“The prints are fresh to the auction market. They were originally in the collection of Isador Sy Seidman, who acquired them over time.

Starting at lot 44, the Hine consignment can be viewed on the Swann website.