Jacob+Riis


 * Jacob Riis**

Jacob Riis immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1870. After years of extreme poverty and hardship, he finally found employment as a police reporter for the New York Tribune in 1877. In the 1880’s his work gravitated towards reform and he worked with other New York reformers then crusading for better living conditions for the thousands of immigrants flocking to New York in search of new opportunities. His most popular work, //How the Other Half Lives//, became a pivotal work that precipitated much needed reforms and made him famous. Jacob Riis’ photography, taken up to help him document the plight of the poor, made him an important figure in the history of documentary photography.