[영문]This is a study of documentary photography in American socialwelfare history. The study examines the emergence of photographyas a tool of social policy, and in particular, key practitionerswho shaped the perception of American social welfare. Within thesocial welfare literature, this topic is largely unexamined yet invaluableto an understanding of American social welfare. Photographyperformed a highly instrumental role by providing visualevidence as an innovative way of seeing and analyzing socialproblems. This image-based approach to social welfare analysisinfluenced how society viewed itself and the social environment.The goal of this study is to understand this infl uence by exploringthe emergence of documentary photography and the practiceof documentary photography as a tool of social welfare policy