How the Other Half Lives

In the 1890s, upper- and middle-class society remained largely ignorant of the dire living conditions faced by poor immigrants in the slums. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant and former police reporter, sought to illuminate the squalor of Manhattan's Lower East Side through a groundbreaking photojournal. His work combined vivid descriptions, sketches, photographs, and statistics to reveal the harsh realities of urban poverty, aiming to raise awareness and inspire change among the affluent.