from a photography standpoint, Jacob Riis is one of the most interesting characters in the field. He committed one of the cardinal sins of photojournalism: many of his photographs were lies, with staged subjects. He spent effort to make the conditions look worse than they were- for his own gain, and also likely because he really believed in showing the conditions of urban life.

many outside of photography will overlook fussy criticism of Riis- his work helped pass laws that positively affected the lives of millions, who cares if he directed street urchins where to sit and made situations seem more desperate than they actually were? after all, the conditions were often extremely desperate.

but his job as a photojournalist was to portray things as they were- especially since he portrayed his photos as journalism. arguably, his photos also flattened the immigrant experiance to poor, crime ridden, and full of disease, rather than poor, crime ridden, full of disease, full of opportunity, and often with a great sense of community that made up immigrant life at that time. He also directly profited from simplifying and lying about urban life.

to me, Jacob Riis symbolizes how positive change isn't always done by the most scrupulous of actors, and the complicated relationship of truth and nuance with social change and politics. in order to pass a law, society often needs to have an uncompromisingly negative opinion of whatever status quo will be overthrown.

https://research.steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/media/users/gr... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Riis