Rediscovering Jacob Riis
Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Jacob Riis’s New York
Daniel Czitrom
2. Jacob A. Riis, Photographer “After a Fashion”
Bonnie Yochelson
Notes
Index
Introduction
1. Jacob Riis’s New York
Daniel Czitrom
2. Jacob A. Riis, Photographer “After a Fashion”
Bonnie Yochelson
Notes
Index
Review Quotes
Sam Roberts | New York Times
“An evocative and valuable reminder both of one unrelenting individual’s ability to make a difference and of the relevance of his revelations to the painfully familiar problems we face today.”
Matthew Power | New York Times Book Review
“A rigorous, scholarly reexamination of Riis’s life and work. . . . Riis’s lightning-flash images of social catastrophe still have the power to shock, even after 120 years.”
Louis P. Masur | Chicago Tribune
“Yochelson and Czitrom have done a service in returning Riis’s images to public attention. We gaze into the eyes of these 19th-century immigrant Americans and we feel for the hardships of the past and refocus on the struggles of today. Urban poverty remains a national blight. We await another Jacob Riis who, with camera and pen, can make the darkness visible and shock us anew.”
Photo Review
“More than ninety years after his death, Jacob Riis maintains a captivating hold on the American imagination. Remembered as a pioneering photographer, he was the first to photograph the conditions of New York City slums. Riis captured in haunting pictures the plight of the urban poor at the height of European immigration to the city, providing images of tenement living and squalor. In Rediscovering Jacob Riis, Yochelson and Czitrom address the complex legacy of the social reformer. Combining their expertise, Yochelson, an art historian, and Czitrom, a history professor, explore the significance of Riis’s photography to create a work of highly original scholarship.”
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