Elements- Riis.

Describing Riis' style as a photographer is difficult to define, as his focus was photojournalism, and not just photography. He said himself that he did not take up photography as a past time, but a way to intensify the written word. He figured out that photography was a successful way to instill the kind of shock in people that he was trying for.

However, he was able to get emotion across in his photography, which meant that he had to know what he was doing. The few recurring themes that I noticed in his photography included:

1. Eye contact
2. Motion
3. Poverty, and the real world.
4. Singling out the individual in a crowd
5. Repetition (as used for depth perception)
6. Children's lives
7. Black and white
8. Inconsistant use of light (meaning that some of pictures are generally darker than others) It's interesting to notice the different uses of light after his flash photography was pioneered.

Jacob Riis

Biographical Background and Personal Works:

Jacob Riis was born on May third, 1849, as the third of large Danish-American family of 15. Unfortunately though, only two of his siblings survived into the 20th century.

Jacob Riis (1)

Inspiration for the motives of his work came from both of his parents. His father was a school teacher, so he was well read, which sparked an early concern for the poor. His mother was a housewife, and that way learned how to care for others, and actively did so some Christmases when he gifted his less fortunate neighbors the offering to clean their homes, with his mother, for free. She supported him gladly. Seeing his potential, his father encouraged a literary career for Riis, however he preferred carpentry to literature, so that is where his working life began. Sadly though, as he grew his life began to attract tragedy, beginning with the death of one of his brothers and continued through many later family tragedies. His work as a carpenter led him to meet a woman named Elizabeth, who fell madly in love with and proposed to. The tragedy continued though when she declined, so he decided to move to New York. From there, he moved around a great deal, to Iowa and back, and many places in between. He took any work he could get, always returning to carpentry when he could. Along with his personal life being rather sad, the world that he lived in was in a state of social turmoil. Parallel with his childhood interests, living situations for many were poor, including himself. This unstable lifestyle is mirrored in what would be his later work.

Children sleeping in Mulberry street, 1890 (2)

Throughout his time as a kind of a nomad, he made various attempts to enlist, but the war would not have him. It was not meant to be. His career as a controversial journalist and photographer evidently was. But the process of him getting there was a slow one. He eventually became successful as a carpenter, known for his low prices and good work. This success was the mark of his seemingly eminent bad luck turning around. It allowed him time to do leisurely things, like for him, writing. He was first rejected as a journalist, but eventually got a job at the New York News Association. The job he got was to cover a luncheon for wealthy families at the Astor House. This in a way was perfect for Riis, as it allowed him to compare the lives of the rich to those of the poor immigrant communities that he was so familiar with. He ended up becoming the editor of the newspaper until it went bankrupt. At that time he had acquired enough wealth from his carpentry and editing that he was able to buy back the newspaper, and eventually sell it for five times as much as he got it for. He had gone from poor immigrant, living practically on the streets to wealthy Danish American man, enough well off to settle down. Soon after, he got a call from home informing him that his long lost love, Elizabeth’s fiancée had died. This was good news for Riis, as he was now wealthy enough to have a life with her. He again proposed, and this time, she said yes. Bearing still more good fortune, he became the editor of the “Brooklyn News”. He continued to write about the impoverished New York city, it attempt to call attention to it’s streets. He decided that his points could be

made more strongly through photography.

Taken from Riis' Book, "How the Other Half lives" (3)

In this exploration he found out that the kind of pictures that he wanted to take were made difficult because of a lack of light. Because of this he began to help the development of the flash and was eventually successful. He was indeed a pioneer of our flash photography. However before the flash was fully developed as coming directly from the camera, Riis used actual flashlights while shooting. Once he established this use of light, objectives such as focal length and depth of field were much easier to capture, for photographers everywhere.

Riis was able to improve his own photos by pioneering Flash Photography, and that of other photographers (picture on the right is by Heine) (4)

As his photographs improved, other editors began to favor his photographs over his writing. A lot of his objective work took place on the notoriously crime filled “Mulberry street”. The intensity of the photos he was able to take there allowed his articles to have a real impact on the people who read them. His work was so powerful to some that his emphasis was active in helping to establish the Model Tenements in New York, which were homes similar to projects for the poor.

"Mulberry Street" (5)

One 18 page article that he wrote for Scribner’s Magazine called “How the Other Half Lives” included many photos, and was a great success. It turned into a book, which included more photographs, used to describe visually what he wanted people to see about “the other Half”. Many of his most renowned work is present in this book.

"Lodgers in a crowded bay yard tenement-'Five Cent Spot'" (6)

"Tenements" (7)

"Breaker Boys"(8)

Jacob Riis was knows as a “social reformer, muckraking journalist, and great photographer”. His work was very powerful to most, and a wakeup call to everybody of his time, who had the pleasure of reading, or rather seeing, it. He used photojournalism in order to promote "just social reforms".

Works Cited:

1. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Jacob_Riis_2.jpg/431px-Jacob_Riis_2.jpg

2.http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=d9279aefc2c20861&q=jacob%20riis%20how%20the%20other%20half%20lives&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djacob%2Briis%2Bhow%2Bthe%2Bother%2Bhalf%2Blives%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26um%3D1

3.http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/assets/Image/Nieman%20Reports/Images%20by%20Issue/spring08/watchdog/watchdog1.jpg

4. http://paulturounetblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/jacob-riis_lewis-hine.jpg

5.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWJd3TOhT2pIYtth0l6VwEXNeNxXDnSdGutJicYSZAI2JWk-XT9HtrggyJ32yjeuAfZ31t-wvD541ezmmGeplOBPmWZOG-69jusOrDhmlOUHpzqh6265De2wjJ61xjORbFw5911krEZHmI/s400/Bandit's+Roost+by+Jacob+Riis,+1888,+from+How+the+Other+Half+Lives.+This+image+is+Bandit%27s+Roost+at+59½+Mulberry+Street,+considered+the+most+crime-ridden,+dangerous+part+of+New+York+City.+Riis_bandits_roost.jpg

6. http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/253/w500h420/CRI_5253.jpg

7. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/76/153130510_2dcb2c8a48.jpg

8. http://www.boisestate.edu/socwork/dhuff/history/gallery/Hine/4-h.htm

Inspiration, Major Works, Genre, influence etc:

Along with being a pioneer of flash photography, Jacob Riis was a major influence to photo journalism. He quotes: "O am downright sorry to confess here that I am no good as a photographer…It was never a past time for me, I had a use for it". This use is exactly why he took up photography, not to make pretty pictured but to make memorable points about the world and it's harsh realities. Some successful examples of his projects are his books. First, how the other half lives, which embodies many of his values and shows the moral ideals of his work. A physical example of these morals is his role in the establishment of the tenements in New York City, which helped in getting the poor off the street. They were by no means fancy, but were better than nothing. Riis also published a written piece called children of the poor, or children of the tenement, which focused on the difficult lives of children. Some of the most popular photos that appear in these works are:

Those of Mullins alley (outside the tenements)- How the Other Half Lives [1]

The tramp- How the Other Half Lives [2]

Street Arabs in Sleeping Quarters- Children of The Poor [3]

"I Scrubs"

(in conversation with nine year old Katie she told him that her and her siblings kept the house as her parents had passed away. It Appeared in Children of the Poor.) [4]

A Truck for a Playground- Children of the Poor (Riis talked about how the fact that

children were not allowed to play in the streets made their urges stronger) **unable to be found.

Poverty Grippers playing- Children of the Poor [5]

Women's Lodging Room in Eldridge Street Police Station- How the Other Half Lives [6]

A Scrub and Her Bed- How the Other Half Lives [7]

A Baby's Playground- Children of the Poor [8]

Inspiration:

As Riis' photography was not used as a device for producing pretty images, other photographers were not his inspiration. He was inspired by the real world. In terms of his field of work, the few photojournalists before him included:

-1819: War correspondent Roger Festoon, who took photos of the war to educate people, similar to Riis' objectives in his work.

-1823: William Simpson, who also a war photographer, and therefore shared the objective of educating people.

-1822: Matthew Brady, was an American photographer who unlike Riis, photographed celebrities. However, he he was like Riis in that he had been a war photographer, who was notorious for giving the public what they wanted; realistic shots of what was actually happening. Riis shared a certain pride in exploiting harsh truths. They were both born in New York as well. However, Brady had to use a traveling darkroom. In this respect, he could have been helped by the inventions of…

-1849: Riis. He helped invent flash photography, which took photojournalism to a whole new level. Traveling darkrooms were no longer necessary, although not completely abandoned by some. Photojournalists who came after Riis were subject to his influence in their use of flash photography, and also the purity with which he went about his work. These photographers were people like:

-1879: Lewis Hine. Was similar to Riis in his, somewhat creepy, documenting o the lives of children.

Without a question, Riis' influence allowed mainstream Photojournalism to flourish. However, we see a lot of photojournalism today, and don't even realize it. Things like advertisements for products are a kind of photojournalism. Even though they are not trying to prove points about real world things, they are using the idea of taking a picture of something, and using it to sell a point. Ideas like these were also partly inspired by pioneer photojournalists, like Riis and his successors.

Works Cited:

1. http://students.washington.edu/karamck/images/jacob_riis/riis_mullens_alley.jpg

2. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/A_Tramp%27s_Nest_in_Ludlow_Street.jpeg

3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_azWmV5p47Rs/SfbIBoMsCcI/AAAAAAAABy8/Jt0GwpW7aR0/s400/blog+street+arabs.jpg

4. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/27/nyregion/90.13.4.132.jpg

5. http://www.lenbernstein.com/GirlBaby350.jpg

6. http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/full/riis/riis_womens_lodging.jpg

7. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/25/books/power-650.jpg

8. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3Y9nnqmzAPNjQ6mFlludmSFsUoA54GQL8NT5LaWr1Dh5iSU1ODiA6J-8DE0lI_7l56g4LqUrcr8cTdBxf1WgUqMYWo4dyZveZenFqNRJpPVKhxb7e5fnyuqRK2FzeThHnyp0iWAgqSU/s320/Growler-boy.jpg

DEPTH.

Repetition

Perspective (background/foreground)

Leading Lines

Understading how to create depth in photos is key to being successful as a photographer. It is simple to understand and easy to do, and if not anything else it gives your pictures structure. A picture with no center object to look at but good depth can be interesting, where even pictures with intresting objectives but no depth can appear bland. We explored 3 topics of depth. Leading lines, which take you deep into the picture, perspective photography, which draws your attention on one area initally but then allow you to appticiate the rest of the photo, and repition which involves analizing small differences between lots of the same things. All of these things provide simple but great ways to bring depth into your photos.

Depth

Contrasting Forms

Repetition

Leading Lines

Halloween.

Once there was a teenage boy,
Whose self he sought out to destroy.
By day he is normal
By night he is not
As soon as sun leaves the sky,
He’s distraught.

His mission when the sun goes down is always the quite the same
Destruction of his very self is always tonight’s game

As stars retire, one by one
And up comes mornings shining sun
His hatred of own being dies,
Again, he’s like most other guys

Inflicting pain on his own self he what he’s set to do
Death by spider web or bite it often might be through

I have pictures of his nightly acts as proof of his addiction
One day they’ll be compulsory to disproving false conviction.
There has yet to be one though, as he has not succeeded
My pictures, as of currently, remain to be unneeded.

So still nobody one knows his tale
His secret, safe with me
The night though on which he succeeds
My pictures, I’ll set free.

Rule Of Thirds

The idea for our rule of thirds shoot was to devide our photos into thirds, and only fill only one of the thirds with the subject of the picture. In doing this, our goal was to create a balance between the subject, and the 2/3s left of the frame. Another trick that we used to achieve this balance was staying away from taking "say cheese" photos, with the subject in the middle of the picture. This for one, is a boring shot, but also makes our desired balance impossible to achieve. The rule applies to objects and people the same, and makes shots interesting because it forces us to think about were the subject of our picture is placed in our frame. Doing that as well as trying to take pictures of interesting things together was difficult, but the end products are nice. Taking pictures by the rule of thirds was an interesting new way to look at shooting photos.

Walk.

Walking around the nehiborhood, our goal was to take pictures of things that created repetitive shapes. It was cool to be taking pictures of things, instead of people. They are different in that things are sometimes completely changed when the picture is taken from a different perspective. Where that is true for people too, the message of a photo of an object seemed more often completely dependent on the angle in which you took it.

Library

Taking photos in our library was fun because we got to work with props more than our other shoots. Using books and flowers to enhance our photos was something that we didn't get to do in any of our other shoots. It was not as difficult because the props distract from the person. The most challenging part was balancing the distractions of the props and the packgrounds, and still making the person in the photo interesting.