PRESS RELEASE
JACOB A. RIIS
- L I G H T I N DA R K P L AC E S
1. OCTOBER 2016 - 8. JANUARY 2017
“I SCRUBS,” LITTLE KATIE, 1891-92, JACOB A. RIIS COLLECTION, MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK (90.13.4.132)
DESCRIBED AS “NEW YORK’S MOST USEFUL CITIZEN” BY FUTURE PRESIDENT
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, JACOB A. RIIS HAD FOUGHT HIS WAY OUT OF POVERTY
AS A YOUNG IMMIGRANT. THROUGH HIS PIONEERING PHOTOJOURNALISTIC
WORK, HE STROVE TIRELESSLY TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE THOUSANDS OF
POOR PEOPLE IN THE CITY AND TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVING CONDITIONS. THE
EXHIBITION AT GL STRAND FOCUSES FOR THE FIRST TIME ON HOW RIIS DEVOTED
HIS LIFE TO SOCIAL REFORMS IN NEW YORK’S LOWER EAST SIDE – NOT JUST AS
A PIONEER OF PHOTOGRAPHY, BUT ALSO THROUGH THE SPOKEN AND WRITTEN
WORD.
PRESS RELEASE
JACOB A. RIIS
1. OKTOBER 2016 - 8. JANUAR 2017
Through a retrospective presentation of the extensive oeuvre of Jacob A. Riis, this exhibition
presents his work as a social reformer and a pioneer of photojournalism. Riis’ photographic work is
seen in a comprehensive context of his extensive work as an author, journalist and writer.
Jacob A. Riis was born in Ribe in 1849 and emigrated in 1870 to America, where, like thousands
of others, he sought a better life. After surviving various casual positions, he found employment
in 1877 as a crime reporter for the New York Tribune, where he dramatically described crimes,
accidents and other calamities. Later, he shifted his focus to the reform of poor housing and living
conditions, about which he published several books and articles. At the newspaper, he began to
photograph the inhabitants of the slum-like tenement buildings of southern Manhattan, using the
ground-breaking flash technique – which made him the first person to use flash photography in a
social context. As a reporter, photographer, writer and lecturer, he continued to inform and entertain
his audience with pictures and passionate stories of the poor and their miserable living conditions
until his death in 1914.
THE OTHER HALF
In 1890 he published his bestselling book ‘How the Other Half Lives’, which provided hitherto
unprecedented insight into poverty, social deprivation and exploitative housing conditions for the
middle and upper class, who had no idea know how life was being lived just a few miles from
their own privileged homes. Together with his newspaper articles and personal lectures on his
photographs, Riis made it his mission in life to show how social deprivation leads to social and
moral degradation. His work achieved wide circulation and popularity, and through his friendship
with later US president Theodore Roosevelt, Riis also managed to contribute to real improvements
in housing, the creation of green areas and the closure of the notorious ‘police lodgings’.
‘Jacob A. Riis – the Ideal American Citizen’ shows that despite the fact that Riis died more than a
century ago, there is still a great topicality in his work and the social conditions that he fought so
fiercely to change. Rising inequality, immigration and the opportunities and challenges presented
by urban development are issues that we now share. Through its presentation of the historical
material, the exhibition provides some thought-provoking input in relation to these contemporary
challenges.
THE EXHIBITION AT GL STRAND
The exhibition has a chronological structure. We are first of all introduced to a number of factual
aspects of New York in the late 1800s, and through a selection of letters, photographs and films,
we gain a glimpse of Riis’s personal history. This is followed by a presentation of Riis’s pioneering
photographic work, and the public will have an opportunity to experience one of the lectures that
Riis gave as he travelled around the United States.
PRESS RELEASE
JACOB A. RIIS
1. OKTOBER 2016 - 8. JANUAR 2017
These lectures helped to make him a famous figure. On the second floor is a selection of articles
and photographs that provide examples of how Jacob A. Riis worked to improve conditions for New
York’s poorest citizens, showing the importance of Riis’s friendship with Theodore Roosevelt and
the significance of Riis’s work for later reform movements. The exhibition concludes with a large
selection of Riis’s photographs.
THE EXHIBITION HAS BEEN CREATED BY THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
The exhibition was compiled by Dr. Bonnie Yochelson and the Museum of the City of New York,
where it was presented in autumn 2015. It was subsequently also displayed in the Library of
Congress in Washington DC, and now, in an edited version, it travels on to Copenhagen and thence
to Ribe Art Museum. It was originally created to mark the centenary of Riis’s death in 2014.
For INFORMATION, IMAGES and arrangements regarding INTERVIEWS, please contact
Head of Communication and Commercial Relations Pernille Wahlgren: 33 36 02 61 / [email protected] or
Communication Assistant Christine Løkkebø: 33 36 02 64
Find press photos, press releases and exhibition programs in our online press room.
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You are invited to the PRESS CONFERENCE on friday 30. september 2016 at 11
am with participation of curator Anne Kielgast among others.
You are also invited to the OPENING RECEPTION on Friday 30. september 2016 at 5-7 pm.