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History 2402 – United States History since the Civil War
Introduction
The photographs of New York City slums taken between 1888 and 1898 by photographer and journalist Jacob Riis has served as a daunting highlight on the plight of people suffering from poverty in a highly prosperous area of the United States (US). The context within which Riis took his photographs, most of which he published in his book How the Other Half Lives, portrays a time when immigrants started flocking to the US – New York City being among the most popular places for settlement. In gaining a greater understanding of the aforementioned period in US history, the photographs of Riis are essential in proving that not all immigrants enjoyed what they positively expected from the US – that of a prosperous land filled with bright economic opportunities. The photographs of Riis help prove as well the imperfections that characterized the period of mass immigration in the US, particularly its consequence on increasing urban poverty – in this case, in New York City.
Context
Riis himself recounted that the struggle of the immigrants to survive is highly apparent in the way they sought to converge to form communities in the least-gentrified areas of New York City, which in turn allowed them to conduct daily activities necessary for their survival such as commerce, albeit in highly unpleasant conditions. At the same time, however, Riis has highlighted the desperation of the people in his photographs, who were involved in criminal acts such as theft and homicide. The photos Riis has taken clearly highlights the undignified state of poverty-stricken immigrants in New York City – a fact that left them with no choice but to survive even in the crudest means possible.
The context provided by the photographs taken by Riis potentially generates this question: why did some of the immigrants that entered the US suffer from poverty? Riis may not have literally shown the prosperity enjoyed by other immigrants in the US through his photographs, but instead he visually narrated a telling story of how the so-called “American Dream” has not favored all immigrants that entered the nation. Urbanization has helped generate false hopes in the form of growing opportunities in the US job market. Immigrants who desired those opportunities but failed due to stiff competition for gaining employment eventually found themselves in slums – in the case of the photographs Riis has taken, in New York City. In effect, Riis has shown through his photographs a valuable portion of the history of the urban poor in the US.
Conclusion
Riis successfully used photography - a powerful medium for his time, in telling part of the story of the urban poor in the US. New York City served as the perfect setting for his photographs; as one of the main hubs for immigrants in the US at the time, it grew to suffer from increasing urban poverty due to the lack of employment opportunities for immigrants. Such drove many immigrants to use desperate measures for survival – a fact clearly exhibited in the photographs of Riis.
Bibliography
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Reynolds, Todd. “Security Exchanges: The Rise of Systematic Criminal Justice in the Gilded Age U.S. Imagination.” Doctoral Dissertation, University of Florida, 2007.
Riis, Jacob. How the Other Half Lives. New York City, NY: Penguin Books, 2010. Print.
Schwelk, Susan. The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public. New York City, NY: New York University Press, 2009.
Silverstein, Norma. “Lilian Ward at Henry Street, 1893-1895.” Advances in Nursing Science 7, no. 2 (1985), accessed January 31, 2014, http://journals.lww.com/advancesinnursingscience/abstract/1985/01000/lillian_wald_at_henry_street,_1893_1895.4.aspx.
“The Collection: Jacob August Riis.” Museum of Modern Art. Accessed January 31, 2014. http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=4928.
