1849–1914

Photographer and writer Jacob Riis first became familiar with the immigrant communities on the Lower East Side while working as a reporter for the New York Tribune. Starting in 1887, he began working on his own to bring the poverty and social inequities of the area to the public eye. His photography often used bright flashes to literally bring light to the dirty, miserable conditions in tenement houses. This technique was reflected in the title of his first major article in the New York Sun, “Flashes from the Slums” (1888). His best–known work is the book How the Other Half Lives (1890), which helped stimulate widespread interest in social welfare programs through its blunt, eloquent photos.