In their own way, each photographer carries on Jacob Riis' legacy. Perhaps ahead of his time, Jacob Riis turned to public speaking as a way to get his message out when magazine editors weren't interested in his writing, only his photos. Jacob August Riis, (American, born Denmark, 1849-1914), Untitled, c. 1898, print 1941, Gelatin silver print, Gift of Milton Esterow, 99.362. Lodgers in a crowded Bayard Street tenement - "Five cents a spot." In the home of an Italian Ragpicker, Jersey Street. 1889. Riis came from Scandinavia as a young man and moved to the United States. Image: Photo of street children in "sleeping quarters" taken by Jacob Riis in 1890. Tenement buildings were constructed with cheap materials, had little or no indoor plumbing and lacked proper ventilation. It's little surprise that Roosevelt once said that he was tempted to call Riis "the best American I ever knew.". In those times a huge proportion of Denmarks population the equivalent of a third of the population in the half-century up to 1890 emigrated to find better opportunities, mostly in America. However, his leadership and legacy in social reform truly began when he started to use photography to reveal the dire conditions inthe most densely populated city in America. We welcome you to explore the website and learn about this thrilling project. Figure 4. "Police Station Lodgers in Elizabeth Street Station." For more Jacob Riis photographs from the era of How the Other Half Lives, see this visual survey of the Five Points gangs. Members of the Growler Gang demonstrate how they steal. He subsequently held various jobs, gaining a firsthand acquaintance with the ragged underside of city life. By selecting sympathetic types and contrasting the individuals expression and gesture with the shabbiness of the physical surroundings, the photographer frequently was able to transform a mundane record of what exists into a fervent plea for what might be. Riis became sought after and travelled extensively, giving eye-opening presentations right across the United States. As you can see in the photograph, Jacob Riis captured candid photographs of immigrants living conditions. Think you now have a grasp of "how the other half lives"? In the service of bringing visible, public form to the conditions of the poor, Riis sought out the most meager accommodations in dangerous neighborhoods and recorded them in harsh, contrasting light with early magnesium flashes. Jacob Riis is a photographer and an author just trying to make a difference. At some point, factory working hours made women spend more hours with their husbands in the . Open Document. Jacob August Riis ( REESS; May 3, 1849 - May 26, 1914) was a Danish-American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. Oct. 1935, Berenice Abbott: Pike and Henry Street. During the 19th century, immigration steadily increased, causing New York City's population to double every decade from 1800 to 1880. Circa 1888-1898. Acclaimed New York street photographers like Camilo Jos Vergara, Vivian Cherry, and Richard Sandler all used their cameras to document the grittier side of urban life. Granger. Mar. Mar. New immigrants toNew York City in the late 1800s faced grim, cramped living conditions intenement housing that once dominated the Lower East Side. (20.4 x 25.2 cm) Mat: 14 x 17 in. Jacob Riis may have set his house on fire twice, and himself aflame once, as he perfected the new 19th-century flash photography technique, but when the magnesium powder erupted with a white . Beginning in the late 19th century, with the emergence of organized social reform movements and the creation of inexpensive means of creating reproducing photographs, a form of social photography began that had not been prevalent earlier. All Rights Reserved. A man sorts through trash in a makeshift home under the 47th Street dump. Circa 1889. Circa 1889-1890. Hine did not look down on his subjects, as many people might have done at the time, but instead photographed them as proud and dignified, and created a wonderful record of the people that were passing into the city at the turn of the century. Riis wanted to expose the terrible living conditions on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My case was made. His article caused New York City to purchase the land around the New Croton Reservoir and ensured more vigilance against a cholera outbreak. At the age of 21, Riis immigrated to America. Riis initially struggled to get by, working as a carpenter and at . Circa 1888-1890. You can support NOMAs staff during these uncertain times as they work hard to produce virtual content to keep our community connected, care for our permanent collection during the museums closure, and prepare to reopen our doors. He learned carpentry in Denmark before immigrating to the United States at the age of 21. Without any figure to indicate the scale of these bunks, only the width of the floorboards provides a key to the length of the cloth strips that were suspended from wooden frames that bow even without anyone to support. Jacob Riis Analysis. His most enduring legacy remains the written descriptions, photographs, and analysis of the conditions in which the majority of New Yorkers lived in the late nineteenth century. This website stores cookies on your computer. (LogOut/ In Chapter 8 of After the Fact in the article, "The Mirror with a Memory" by James West Davidson and Mark Lytle, the authors tell the story of photography and of a man names Jacob Riis. One of the earliest Documentary Photographers, Danish immigrant Jacob Riis, was so successful at his art that he befriended President Theodore Roosevelt and managed to change the law and create societal improvement for some the poorest in America. Those photos are early examples of flashbulbphotography. Unfortunately, when he arrived in the city, he immediately faced a myriad of obstacles. Rather, he used photography as a means to an end; to tell a story and, ultimately, spur people into action. Jacob Riis, Ludlow Street Sweater's Shop,1889 (courtesy of the Jacob A. Riis- Theodore Roosevelt Digital Archive) How the Other Half Lives marks the start of a long and powerful tradition of the social documentary in American culture. He sneaks up on the people flashes a picture and then tells the rest of the city how the 'other half' is . A new retrospective spotlights the indelible 19th-century photographs of New York slums that set off a reform movement. 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Walls were erected to create extra rooms, floors were added, and housing spread into backyard areas. In the place of these came parks and play-grounds, and with the sunlight came decency., We photographed it by flashlight on just such a visit. Riis wrote How the Other Half Lives to call attention to the living conditions of more than half of New York City's residents. Jacob Riis, an immigrant from Denmark, became a journalist in New York City in the late 19th century and devoted himself to documenting the plight of working people and the very poor. As a pioneer of investigative photojournalism, Riis would show others that through photography they can make a change. Get our updates delivered directly to your inbox! Baxter Street New York United States. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Jacob Riis was able to capture the living conditions in tenement houses in New York during the late 1800's. Riis's ability to capture these images allowed him to reflect the moral environmentalist approach discussed by Alexander von Hoffman in The Origins of American . After Riis wrote about what they saw in the newspaper, the police force was notably on duty for the rest of Roosevelt's tenure. 1892. Riis tries to portray the living conditions through the 'eyes' of his camera. Jacob Riis's ideological views are evident in his photographs. Men stand in an alley known as "Bandit's Roost." 3 Pages. Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanityfrom the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. In fact, when he was appointed to the presidency of the Board of Commissioners of the New York City Police Department, he turned to Riis for help in seeing how the police performed at night. Riis, whose father was a schoolteacher, was one of 15 children. The League created an advisory board that included Berenice Abbott and Paul Strand, a school directed by Sid Grossman, and created Feature Groups to document life in the poorer neighborhoods. With this new government department in place as well as Jacob Riis and his band of citizen reformers pitching in, new construction went up, streets were cleaned, windows were carved into existing buildings, parks and playgrounds were created, substandard homeless shelters were shuttered, and on and on and on. 1889. More recently still Bone Alley and Kerosene Row were wiped out. Though this didn't earn him a lot of money, it allowed him to meet change makers who could do something about these issues. And Roosevelt was true to his word. analytical essay. Despite their success during his lifetime, however, his photographs were largely forgotten after his death; ultimately his negatives were found and brought to the attention of the Museum of the City of New York, where a retrospective exhibition of his work was held in 1947. You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at, We use MailChimp as our marketing automation platform. $2.50. She seemed to photograph the New York skyscrapers in a way that created the feeling of the stability of the core of the city. Bandit's Roost by Jacob Riis Colorized 20170701 square Photograph. Robert McNamara. A shoemaker at work on Broome Street. His 1890, How the Other Half Lives shocked Americans with its raw depictions of urban slums. Say rather: where are they not? Riis was one of the first Americans to experiment with flash photography, which allowed him to capture images of dimly lit places. An Italian immigrant man smokes a pipe in his makeshift home under the Rivington Street Dump. Nevertheless, Riiss careful choice of subject and camera placement as well as his ability to connect directly with the people he photographed often resulted, as it does here, in an image that is richly suggestive, if not precisely narrative. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Jacob Riis changed all that. 1890. John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. And with this, he set off to show the public a view of the tenements that had not been seen or much talked about before. Jacob August Riis, ca. Jacob August Riis, How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, 1890. I would like to receive the following email newsletter: Learn about our exhibitions, school, events, and more. Photo Analysis. Rising levels of social and economic inequality also helped to galvanize a growing middle class . While out together, they found that nine out of ten officers didn't turn up for duty. Circa 1890. Photographer Jacob Riis exposed the squalid and unsafe state of NYC immigrant tenements. How the Other Half Lives An Activity on how Jacob Riis Exposed the Lives of Poverty in America Watch this video as a class: View how-the-other-half-lives.docx from HIST 101 at Skyline College. Copyright 2023 New York Photography, Prints, Portraits, Events, Workshops, DownloadThe New York Photographer's Travel Guide -Rated 4.8 Stars, Central Park Engagements, Proposals, Weddings, Editing and Putting Together a Portfolio in Street Photography, An Intro to Night City and Street Photography, Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 5. Riis was one of America's first photojournalists. 'For Riis' words and photos - when placed in their proper context - provide the public historian with an extraordinary opportunity to delve into the complex questions of assimilation, labor exploitation, cultural diversity, social . The commonly held view of Riis is that of the muckraking police . His book How the Other Half Lives caused people to try to reform the lives of people who lived in slums. Jacob August Riis (18491914) was a journalist and social reformer in late 19th and early 20th century New York. Bunks in a Seven-Cent Lodging House, Pell Street, Bohemian Cigarmakers at Work in their Tenement, In Sleeping Quarters Rivington Street Dump, Children's Playground in Poverty Cap, New York, Pupils in the Essex Market Schools in a Poor Quarter of New York, Girl from the West 52 Street Industrial School, Vintage Photos Reveal the Gritty NYC Subway in the 70s and 80s, Gritty Snapshots Document the Wandering Lifestyle of Train Hoppers 50,000 Miles Across the US, Winners of the 2015 Urban Photography Competition Shine a Light on Diverse Urban Life Around the World, Gritty Urban Portraits Focus on Life Throughout San Francisco, B&W Photos Give Firsthand Perspective of Daily Life in 1940s New York. A Bohemian family at work making cigars inside their tenement home. 1901. Fax: 504.658.4199, When the reporter and newspaper editor Jacob Riis purchased a camera in 1888, his chief concern was to obtain pictures that would reveal a world that much of New York City tried hard to ignore: the tenement houses, streets, and back alleys that were populated by the poor and largely immigrant communities flocking to the city. His innovative use of flashlight photography to document and portray the squalid living conditions, homeless children and filthy alleyways of New Yorks tenements was revolutionary, showing the nightmarish conditions to an otherwise blind public. In this role he developed a deep, intimate knowledge of the workings of New Yorks worst tenements, where block after block of apartments housed the millions of working-poor immigrants. Then, see what life was like inside the slums inhabited by New York's immigrants around the turn of the 20th century. April 16, 2020 News, Object Lessons, Photography, 2020. Jacob Riis: 5 Cent Lodging, 1889. These changes sent huge waves through the photography of New York, and gave many photographers the tools to be able to go out and create a visual record of the multitude of social problems in the city. As a result, photographs used in campaigns for social reform not only provided truthful evidence but embodied a commitment to humanistic ideals. The following assignment is a primary source analysis. Words? The city was primarily photographed during this period under the Federal Arts Project and the Works Progress Administration, and by the Photo League, which emerged in 1936 and was committed to photographing social issues. Jacob Riis Photographs Still Revealing New York's Other Half. He used vivid photographs and stories . Public History, Tolerance, and the Challenge ofJacob Riis Edward T. O'Donnell Through his pioneering use ofphotography and muckraking prose (most especially in How the Other Half Lives, 1890), Jacob Riis earned fame as a humanitarian in the classic Pro- gressive Era mold. During the late 1800s, America experienced a great influx of immigration, especially from . His work, especially in his landmark 1890 book How the Other Half Lives, had an enormous impact on American society. February 28, 2008 10:00 am. The city is pictured in this large-scale panoramic map, a popular cartographic form used to depict U.S. and Canadian . Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Primary Source Analysis- Jacob Riis, "How the Other Half Lives" by . Compelling images. To find out more about the cookies we use, see our. Bandit's RoostThis post may contain affiliate links. Circa 1887-1890. Public History, Tolerance and the Challenge of Jacob Riis. Only the faint trace of light at the very back of the room offers any promise of something beyond the bleak present. A Downtown "Morgue." An Italian Home under a Dump. Revisiting the Other Half of Jacob Riis. Were committed to providing educators accessible, high-quality teaching tools. The dirt was so thick on the walls it smothered the fire., A long while after we took Mulberry Bend by the throat. When Jacob Riis published How the Other Half Lives in 1890, the U.S. Census Bureau ranked New York as the most densely populated city in the United States1.5 million inhabitants.Riis claimed that per square mile, it was one of the most densely populated places on the planet. That is what Jacob decided finally to do in 1870, aged 21. Twelve-Year-Old Boy Pulling Threads in a Sweat Shop. Jacob Riis was an American newspaper reporter, social reformer, and photographer. In the three decades leading up to his arrival, the city's population, driven relentlessly upward by intense immigration, had more than tripled. Interpreting the Progressive Era Pictures vs. As a result, many of Riiss existing prints, such as this one, are made from the sole surviving negatives made in each location.