“‘One half of the world does not know how the other half lives’” (1). I cannot stop thinking about how powerful this quote is. It is so simple, but means so much. What I took from this is that the people are always looking up. They watch the lives of people above them, but not of people below them. They have a sense of superiority, and will not lower themselves to even associate with those living worse than they are, even though people should be helping those less fortunate than themselves.
I think Jacob Riis’ book How the Other Half Lives really helped to alert the upper classes how the lower classes lived. They no longer could deny what was put into print. There was proof that there were many people living in tenements, which by no standards was an adequate place of living. “If Riis is known as one of America’s greatest writers of social reform, he is equally known as one of America’s important photographers” (vii). Riis’ choice of adding photography to his book helped his case tremendously. As most upper class people would not even think of visiting the tenements, they were still able to see what life was like through Riis’ pictures. If you lived in this time, would you have followed Riis’ book and helped?
“He not only substantiated his case against the tenements – with photographs duplicating conditions to the last wrinkle – but he also was among the first to show the power of photography as a journalistic weapon” (viii). Think about how much photography is a huge part of journalism today. Photographs are everywhere in our society today, thanks to the great advances of technology since Riis’ day. There are photographs on billboards, in magazines, on the internet. There is no escaping them. If Riis’ book had never been published, would the true power of photography ever be discovered?
No comments:
Post a Comment