Jacob Riis gained fame in the 1890s by releasing a photojournalism publication called
“How the Other Half Lives.” These photos depicted the poor living conditions that the tenements on the Lower East Side housed. From now until March 20, 2016, the the Museum of the City of New York is presenting “Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half.” The exhibit will feature 125 letters, manuscripts and other printed material and artifacts, generously provided by the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.
The mysterious and unanswered questions that arise from these photos are what makes them so interesting. Upon viewing them, you might wonder “whatever happened to the three children of the English dockworker and his family living in a one-room flat…near what is now the High Line? Or the barefoot boys, who posed huddled above a grate on Mulberry Street in Little Italy?” The answers might never be solved, which is what makes their artistic statements unbelievably powerful. However, the concepts of these photos aren’t so archaic. In fact, they reflect modern society quite accurately.
New York City Still hosts “the other half,” but not just in the Lower East 
Side; penniless people are scattered throughout the concrete jungle. These poverty-stricken citizens are littered on the streets begging for change, digging through garbage cans, and sleeping through harsh weather conditions. What does the half that is better off do? Nothing but pass them by. I myself am guilty of this. While sparing a dollar to every homeless person I see is not possible, I wish that I had more sympathy when I ignored them all those times to avoid being late for class.
Riis used to give illustrated lectures, speaking to an audience of amateur photographers for two 
hours about 100 of his slides. He later titled these lectures “How the Other Half Lives and Dies,” to show just how gruesome this way of life was. But 1890 isn’t so far off from 2015, because poor
people die in a very similar fashion to the way he depicted: “thousands of forgotten New Yorkers are buried annually in the same unmarked trenches on Hart Island off the Bronx that Riis photographed.” Aside from making me feel terribly sad, this statement really gave me a reality check of how lucky I am to be financially stable and to have a good support group of family and friends surrounding me.
So while I sit here typing this blog post on my free computer, to be submitted for a grade at my prestigious university, someone else sleeps on the streets, waiting for enough change to purchase McDonalds’s. Jacob Riis’ photos are truly shocking, but they’re just art to the better half. To the “other half,” these photos are a reality.
Jacob Riis’ work was very powerful and moving and I think you accurately mirrored that in your post. I found it interesting that you pointed out that his pictures still have profound impact in today’s society. I think a reason for this is people tend to be more sympathetic to causes they know they cannot help. It is easier to feel bad about the poor people in the picture because they are not asking for our dollar. The people in his pictures are the same people that are homeless today but we “want” to help the people in his pictures more than the people that are homeless in front of us.
I agree with what you have said. It does seem as though we can sympathize better and feel pity because they arent asking for a dollar. Often its hard to give when people are asking. These pictures depict a strong image of the two sides of a society. The more well off and the less well off. Being part of the fortunate few, it rarely occurs to me to pay attention to the homeless. Often I choose to ingore them and pretend I dont see them, and this is something I am not proud of, but there are just too many homeless people around.
It’s really depressing that despite the progress we’ve made, we still have the same problems we did a century ago. Every day we go through our lives, ignoring the suffering of countless poverty stricken individuals scattered across the city. Jacob Riis, unlike many others during his era, decided to help out those less privileged than himself. His lifework focused on helping others; he not only wanted to improve living conditions for the poor, but he was also aiming to inspire everyone to be more compassionate. Riis’ message is just as powerful today as it was during his lifetime. His photos serve as a reminder that there’s always more to be done to help fellow human beings.
It’s amazing how we can look at things that happened so long ago and make believe that we changed society for the better. In NYC especially, the ‘other’ half will always exist. Even though we see that every day on the streets, we refuse to believe that people still live in the same conditions that the other half lived in a hundred years ago. The reality is that people today are living in worse conditions, while others don’t have a home to go to at all. The streets are literally their bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms. I hope that someday people will realize that as a society, we haven’t advanced much in terms of closing the gap between poor and rich.
I liked your emphasis on “The Other Half”. When your neighborhood is all middle-class, there is very little visible disparity between rich and poor. The city pushes everyone together: a wealthy banker still has to wait on the subway next to a starving artist, across from a college student, and watch a homeless person begging for change travel across train cars. We can draw the line and see the Other Half. The first thing that surprised me about the city was people casually talking about wealth and poverty a lot. The topic never came up in my town and with photos like Riis’ circulating, eventually it would become a topic of discussion. As history shows, pulling people out of their zone resulted in major reform in the cities and that’s all thanks to art.
Great post John! Seeing some of Jacob Riis’s photos are truly appalling. His work is not only an eye opening experience as to what the less fortunate have to suffer through and a reality check, but I believe is also inspiration to succeed in both college and our future careers. When I see a suffering family, it intensifies my devotion to my studies because I know that no matter what, I must make sure that I don’t end up unable to support myself and a future family.
Your post is very moving. Too often we get stuck in our comfortable lives and disregard the people that are less fortunate then us. Jacob Riis’s work gets to the point, the horrid conditions that these people are living. History tends to repeat itself, its very hard to fix every problem that exists in our society, but we must do everything we can to limit the amount of homeless people out there. Jacob Riis’s work also reminds us that we should be appreciative of our current situation because we don’t have to bear the harsh conditions that comes with being homeless. Very eye opening post!
Jacob Riis’ work was profound and powerful when it first came out and today, it still has incredible relevance and pull. Last year, I did a research paper on New York City homelessness and found that homelessness in NYC has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression. Riis’ work reminds us of the duty we have to help others in need. His photographs helped educate and inspire others to try and improve the conditions so many poor people face. In a time when the gap between rich and poor is at its highest, it is important that we take initiative to assist the “other half.”