Reading Images

Readacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (New York: Charles Scribners & Sons, 1890).

Eexamine closely the images in the Jacob Riis exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, "A Century Apart: Images of Spirit and Struggle, Jacob Riis and Five Contemporary Photographers."

Also, you may want to examine closely the photography of and short essay about Jacob Riis, which are available at: http://www.masters-of-photography.com/R/riis/riis.html and http://www.masters-of-photography.com/R/riis/riis_articles2.html.

Assignment

What story does Riis tell in How the Other Half Lives?

What is the point of the book, who is the audience, what is the subject?

What are Riis's politics--place them in their early 19th century context--and does he have an axe to grind; if so what is it?

Does Riis like the immigrants about which he writes? Explain.

Part II.
Now, take a few minutes to describe the photographs: print a couple of favorites out and describe what you see in the images. What do you feel? Now, ask yourself, how do these photographs support Riis' arguments about the lower east side?

Finally, take a bigger leap. How do these photographs conflict with or support the understanding that we are developing of urban life in the United States during the early 20th Century?

What do these images suggest about the relationship between urban life and the immigrant experience; can they help us understand Tremont; what more information might we need to make a meaningful interpretation of them?

Now examine the photographs and read carefully Kay Davis, Documenting the "Other Half". In light of having read Davis, do your impressions of the Riis images changed?