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young girl at work—a scant 4 feet—and the fact that she is representative of many (“a regular
worker”), works powerfully with Hine’s composition, which allows the viewer to see the comparative
size of the machine she stands next to and the bleakness of her surroundings. Each element—her
head bowed, her hand resting on the machine in front of her, light filtering in from the right—
highlights Hine’s gift for powerful social documentary.