Jacob Riis
(1849-1914)
Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914) was a Danish-American social reformer, "muck-raking" journalist, and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in the United States of America at the turn of the twentieth century. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. He endorsed the implementation of "model tenements" in New York with the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller. He was an early proponent of the newly practicable casual photography and one of the first to adopt photographic flash. While living in New York, Riis experienced poverty and became a police reporter writing about the quality of life in the slums. He attempted to alleviate the poor living conditions of poor people by exposing these conditions to the middle and upper classes.
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Investigative journalism that documents the deplorable living conditions of New York City’s tenements, driving societal and legislative reform in the late 19th century.
Books
Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York
(University of Chicago Press, 2014)
Jacob Riis (55)
(Phaidon, 2001)
Jacob Riis: Reporter and Reformer
(Oxford University Press, 2005)
Jacob A. Riis: Photographer & Citizen
(Aperture, 1993)
Jacob A. Riis n°72
(Actes Sud, 1999)
Jacob A. Riis and the American City
(Associated Faculty Press, 1974)
Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York's Other Half: A Complete Catalogue of His Photographs
(Yale University Press, 2015)
Jacob A. Riis: Social Reporter with Camera
(Lucida Pocket, 1987)
The Making of the Other Half: Jacob A. Riis and the New Image of Tenement Poverty
(Aarhus University Press, 2015)
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York With Introductory Chapters and a Riis Chronology
(Palgrave Macmillan, 1996)