This image is the cover for the book The Old Town, Classics To Go

The Old Town, Classics To Go

The Old Town by Jacob A. Riis is a photographic book that documents the living conditions of the poor in New York City during the late 19th century. Riis uses images and personal anecdotes to illustrate the cramped and unhealthy living conditions in the city's tenement neighborhoods. The book serves as a social critique of the urban poverty and a call for reform. Through its powerful images and compelling storytelling, "The Old Town" highlights the struggles of the working class and the urgent need for change in the urban environment.

Jacob A. Riis

Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914) was a Danish-American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in America at the turn of the twentieth century. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. He endorsed the implementation of "model tenements" in New York with the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller. Additionally, as one of the most famous proponents of the newly practicable casual photography, he is considered one of the fathers of photography due to his very early adoption of flash. While living in New York, Riis experienced poverty and became a police reporter writing about the quality of life in the slums. He attempted to alleviate the bad living conditions of poor people by exposing their living conditions to the middle and upper classes.

OTB ebook