Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis was an American reporter, social reformer, and photographer who drew attention to the poverty and living conditions of people in the slum of New York City. He was born in on May 3rd, 1849, in Denmark, and came to the US at the age of 21. As an immigrant, he lived in the Lower East Side of New York City, where he saw firsthand many of the horrors of slum life, discovering that the infant death rate was almost 1/10. When he finally found a job as a police reporter, he was determined to reveal these facts to the country. Using early forms of flash photography to take pictures in the dark slums, Riis and his acquaintances first published reports about the slums in newspapers for around 3 years before compiling his photos in his book How the Other Half Lives to draw attention to the crime and poverty in New York City. The book was popular and honest in its gruesome descriptions and photos of the poor. Riis employed melodramatic language, that, paired with actual photos, inspired pity and shame in many of its readers. It even inspired Teddy Roosevelt to contact Riis, telling him “I have read your book, and I have come to help.” The success of the book prompted the New York legislation to address housing issues.The book was also an important step for muckraking journalism. Muckraker journalists observed and detailed the corruption and suffering caused by industry among the poor of America. Riis wrote multiple other books about social hardship and through his works, advocated for reform to housing as well as education for children. The Children of the Poor was written as a sequel to How the Other Half Lives and The Making of An American was Riis’ autobiography, detailing his experiences as an immigrant. Though Riis was sometimes criticized for not actually pushing for government reform and was later called out for his often racist depiction of African Americans in the slums, his work was revolutionary towards journalism, photography, and social reform. Examples of pictures in How the Other Half Lives: Sources: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/reformer.html https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacob-Riis https://www.britannica.com/topic/muckraker https://petapixel.com/2013/06/16/how-the-other-half-lives-photographs-of-nycs-underbelly-in-the-1890s/