filled the room with such dense smoke that a sec-
ond photograph was generally not possible. When
Riis learned of a new method that did not involve a
pistol, he quickly adopted it. He now used a frying
pan to ignite magnesium powder blown through an
alcohol frame, but this technique also had signifi-
cant drawbacks, namely a tendency to set buildings
on fire. In his autobiography,The Making of an
American, Riis relates that he once barely managed
to put out a fire that he started in a dwelling filled
with blind beggars.
As Riis had hoped, photographs had enormous
influence through documenting how slums were
unfit for human habitation. Riis focused on the
most egregious examples of overcrowding and ex-
ploitation. His photos include a cellar occupied by a
Jew who is celebrating the Sabbath while another
man shovels coal, children huddling in doorways to
sleep, a gang of boys demonstrating their pickpocket
technique, and a small boy who labors at pulling
threads while men hover around him. Riis’s frames
typically involve so many people and objects that the
images almost overwhelm the viewer. He would
often allow the framing edge to violate closure, for
example showing a hand on a shovel and cutting off
the rest of the body. Often the subjects would stare
directly at the camera, although Riis did occasionally
ask them to look away to diffuse the confrontation
with the audience. His depth of field is usually great
with the harsh light that he employed illuminating
every bit of grease and dirt.
The brutal living conditions in the slums existed
because of a laissez-faire attitude, and Riis sought
to replace this inattention with concerted action by
private groups and the government. He demanded
reform of the health and labor laws, changes in the
housing codes, and the enforcement of existing sta-
tutes along with uplifting moral aid programs. To
promote his goals, Riis determined to get his pic-
tures into print. His first article, ‘‘How the Other
Half Lives,’’ appeared inScribner’sChristmas 1889
edition, but it did not include his photographs.
Printing pictures directly from photographs was
impractical for newspapers and magazines in the
nineteenth century, and Riis’s work was always
turned into woodcarvings, with much of the detail
and impact often lost in the translation. In subse-
quent years, Riis would use his photographs for
newspaper and magazine articles, lantern lecture
shows (early versions of slide shows), and books.
His most famous work,How the Other Half Lives
(1890) was an instant success with its combination
of terse, angry prose and vivid illustrations ‘‘chiefly
from photographs taken by the author,’’ as the
book’s title page proclaimed. With 15 halftone re-
productions, some of them virtually redrawn, it was
the first mass-market book to contain more than
just a few photographs. In all, Riis published 15
books, and his 1902 workThe Battle With the
Slumis representative with its focus on slum life,
the inadequacies of schools and playgrounds, the
exploitation of small children who worked at home,
and the brutal labor system in the sweatshops.
InChildren of the Poor, Riis wrote of his experiences:Yet even from Hell’s Kitchen had I not long before been
driven forth with my camera by a band of angry women,
who pelted me with brickbats and stones on my retreat,
shouting at me never to come back.... The children
know generally what they want and they go for it by
the shortest cut. I found that out, whether I had flowers
to give or pictures to take... Their determination to be
‘‘took’’ the moment the camera hove into sight, in the
most striking pose they could hastily devise, was always
the most formidable bar to success I met.Emphatically not a professional, Riis only made
photographs for 10 years, probably stopping in
1898, confident that he had set reform photogra-
phy on its feet and that others would continue his
work. After retiring as a police reporter in 1901,
Riis made a living as lecturer and brought his two-
hour illustrated talk about New York slum life to
every part of the country. He became involved with
the small parks movement, and many of the build-
ings featured in his photographs were demolished
in favor of small patches of green. When Riis died
in 1914, his photographs were forgotten in a box
hidden in the attic of his Long Island home.
Through the efforts of Alexander Alland, 412 4
5 glass-plate negatives taken by Riis and other men
(250 were probably taken by Riis alone) were
found in 1945 just before the house was demol-
ished, and this collection is now housed at the
Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). The
remaining Riis negatives probably vanished into
the archives of the long-extinct newspaper that em-
ployed him.
Works printed from the original glass-plate nega-
tives reveal a photographic eye very different than
the often indistinct and blurry reproductions in
How the Other Half Lives. An exhibition was
mounted by MCNY in 1948 which revealed Riis
was not just a social reformer, but a photographer
of importance. The photographs do not shirk from
the squalid scenes they depict, and their directness
effectively fuses formal qualities with subject mat-
ter. Most of Riis’s books have been republished
either as facsimile editions or with plates reprinted
from the original negatives.
CarynE. NeumannRIIS, JACOB