Jacob Riis: journalist og social reformator

Jacob Riis was a danish immigrant. When he arrived in America.

He was very poor until he started working as a journalist for New York Tribune. He wrote about social indignation. About the very poor people in New York. About the terrifying and health related conditions in the slum of the city.

When the flash photography came out after 1887, Jacob Riis was interestet in documenting the social distress that took place.

By photographing residents and living conditions in the dark surroundings of the slum he was able to get the attention of the American president Theodor Rosevelt. The president later called Jacob Riis the ideal American.

He supplemented his income for five years with lectures, where he travelled with his presentiation.

In 1889 he got a article in the Christmas issues of the prestigious magazine Scribner`s Magazine titled "How the Other Half Lives", that was illustrated by woodcuts based on Riis photographs. The article got very much attention and people loved it. He later extended the article and made it a book.

He had a book published on 304 pages book and it was called “How the other half lives” it became very popular and made Jacob Riis very famous. He made more books on the same topics, but the books contained many repetitions and was not as succesfull as the first book.