American photographer, journalist and activist (1849–1914)
Jacob Riis
Riis in 1906
Born
(1849-05-03)May 3, 1849
Ribe, Denmark
Died
May 26, 1914(1914-05-26) (aged 65)
Barre, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality
Danish, American
Known for
Social reform, journalism, photography
Jacob August Riis (/riːs/REESS; May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914) was a Danish-American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist, and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in the United States of America at the turn of the twentieth century.[1] He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. He endorsed the implementation of "model tenements" in New York with the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller. He was an early proponent of the newly practicable casual photography and one of the first to adopt photographic flash.
While living in New York, Riis experienced poverty and became a police reporter writing about the quality of life in the slums. He attempted to alleviate the poor living conditions of poor people by exposing these conditions to the middle and upper classes.
^Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. p. 570. ISBN 9780415252256.
in Ribe, Denmark, JacobRiis was the third of the 15 children (one of whom, an orphaned niece, was fostered) of Niels Edward Riis, a schoolteacher and...
JacobRiis Park, also called Jacob A. Riis Park and Riis Park, is a seaside park on the southwestern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York...
Tenements of New York (1890) is an early publication of photojournalism by JacobRiis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s...
The JacobRiis Houses are a public housing project managed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) in the East Village in New York City. The project...
Margaret Deland, Edith Wharton, Ambrose Bierce, and J. D. Salinger. Jacob August Riis (1849–1914), a Danish-American muckraker journalist, photographer...
Riis is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Asbjørn 'Bear' Riis (born 1957), Danish professional wrestler Bendik Riis (1911–1988), Norwegian...
Ragpickers Row. In 1897, due in part to the efforts of Danish photojournalist JacobRiis, Mulberry Bend was demolished and turned into Mulberry Bend Park, an urban...
some tolerance for nude beaches in the United States. An example was JacobRiis Park, where nudity was limited to "Bay One" the northernmost section informally...
through 1909 advocating for prison reform and prohibition of alcohol. JacobRiis (1849–1914) – author of How the Other Half Lives, advocating for changes...
ISBN 0-89236-681-8. "JacobRiis Paintings, Bio, Ideas". The Art Story. Michael Burgan, Exposing Hidden Worlds: How JacobRiis' Photos Became Tools for...
American photographer JacobRiis, probably in 1890. The designation of street arabs was given back then to homeless children. Riis took several pictures...
of the Ashcan painters links them to such documentary photographers as JacobRiis and Lewis W. Hine. Several Ashcan School painters derived from the area...
names, is a former municipal tuberculosis sanatorium located adjacent to JacobRiis Park and the Neponsit community on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula...
on January 11, 2009. Retrieved January 1, 2009. "Happy 60th Marcy and JacobRiis House". Archived from the original on May 2, 2010. Retrieved October 24...
and fishing spot on the north shore of the bay. Fort Tilden, between JacobRiis Park and Breezy Point on the Rockaway peninsula, has some of the city's...
new form of documentary is the journalist and urban social reformer JacobRiis. Riis was a New York police-beat reporter who had been converted to urban...
fiction, and with a directness only possible from a man who knows London as JacobRiis knows New York. Shelden, Michael (1991). Orwell: The Authorized Biography...
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