This book talks about the immigrants in the early 1900’s. The book describes how they live their daily lives in New York City.
It helped me a lot on Riis photographs and his writings on to better understand the book and the harsh reality this people lived. This comes to show us that life is not that easy and it will cost us work to succeed. Riis talked about all the immigrant major groups that came to the United States during this time period. Riis was a bit prejudice and stereotyped the people he wrote about.
For example he talked about he Italians as being gamblers and being slow learners. He criticizes them as being dumb and that is the reason they were cheated on their pay roll. They were told that by coming to America they would get payed well and not be charge rent but they were cheated instead. Immigrant lifestyle was well looked at by Riis. He took at look at all the ways the poor lived in New York from their homes to their back alleys. Brief commentary was written and good photographs were taken.
Riis talked about the places they lived in from very poor lighted attics to nothing at all basements. What the author accomplished by putting this book out was to inform the world, in its time period, today’s present and absolutely the future. Riis showed us the life this people lived and a time period in America that should never be forgotten. This time in America is what shaped it into what it is today. He took a good look on how this people and pointed it out so the world can see.
I have heard of photojournalism but this was the first book I read on it. And it was very well explained everything with its writings and photography was well done. I would compare this book to Newsweek report on the September 11 attacks. Even though they are very different they were both two major events and very well done.
How the Other Half Lives blended in the pictures and its text very well and it touched very point of poverty in he 1900’s. From the orphans dwellings to a whole family lifestyle from waking up and working twelve hour shifts. Newsweek talked about another huge subject photograph it and wrote about it. The article in this magazine talked about the subject in hand which was terrorism and wrote and photograph the problems around it. Newsweek informed us of who was behind it and how it affected the world and the United States. Similar how Riis did it show how it affected the families.
Even though these two articles are very different they showed us the reality we face in the world today. It comes to show that the knowledge is out there its just a matter of time when someone is going be get it and put it out so the world can see. Riis and Newsweek did was to inform us what was going on during that time period.
