In Chapter 9 of After the Fact, The Mirror with a Memory, James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle, attempt to describe the way photography has shaped American history, especially through the lens of Jacob Riis, who was known for his urban activism during the early 1900’s. The chapter begins with an explanation of Jacob Riis’s work as a journalist who wandered the streets of New York City in search of people and things that he could write about. Then, it mentions Alexander Alland, a professional urban photographer, finding, in a book by Riis, photographs taken by Riis that capture the image of slums in New York City. This was similar to the field of photography that interested Alland. Then, Alland asks Riis’s oldest son to go through Riis’s…
To follow up from last week's analysis, chapter fifteen of Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror deep drives into the era of post-World War II. Astonishingly, it was only a little over twenty years ago when the University of California Board of Regents member Ward Connerly formally banned affirmative action in the university admission process. For the fear that this practice promoted a form of 'reverse discrimination' because seats would be pulled away from whites and Asians in order to favor African and Latino Americans. With this in mind, Connerly shared a similar ideology with President Ronald Reagan that African Americans could match the growing success of Asian Americans should they study and work hard enough. After his success with…
Jacob Riis uses is own experience has an immigrant that was in poverty plus his research on all the different nationality that lived in the tenements which include Irish, Italian, German, French, African, Spanish, Bohemian, Russian, Scandinavian, Jewish, and Chinese. He also took many photographs of the filthy environment and of people including children in their daily life struggles. The book also included many sketches of his photos and diagram of the different tenements.…
Photography is not just used to show an event; photography is used to capture the details, feelings, and thoughts of something – it provides a compelling representation of the author’s view. All this is done by Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives, where the reader is informed about the hideous conditions that the poor had to face in New York City. Riis uses detailed images, facts with statistics, and examples to create an image to the reader of what these people go through in their everyday lives. Using this process, Riis is able to create an important image, which allows the reader to imagine the conditions of these people, make a change to help these poor people, and to promote and inform the public of these conditions, which allows for…
The Broken Mirror was written by Katherine Phillips, M D, who is Chief of outpatient services and Director of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Body Image Program at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rode Island. In this text, Dr. Philips explains and answers various questions about an unknown psychological disorder known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BDD. The text answers various questions about the disorder including: What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder? How does one know if they have BDD? How does BDD affect one’s life? And what is the treatment plan for BDD sufferers (Philips 1996)?…
Boyer, praises Riis’ novel for its ideas and well organized proposals. The author states that the book, in “both word and image,” has “initiated ideological perspectives and representational strategies that remained current in social thought and public sentiment for much of the twentieth century.” The author is implying how powerful the novel was, and how greatly it has impacted society so that these perspectives continue to remind the readers about the appalling life of the slums throughout the years. In Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn of the …. , authors Bonnie Yochelson and Daniel Czitrom, praise the novel saying that it “passionately portrayed” the “explosive mixture of grinding poverty, sweatshops, and mass immigration, the growing power of urban Democratic political machines, the declining influence of Protestant evangelical churches, the persistence of life threatening public health conditions, the increase in child labor and juvenile crime, and the ‘murder of the home.’” Overall, both reviews were positive and recognized Riis’ detailed descriptions and ideas throughout the novel which are clearly and repeatedly…
Jacob Riis was a social reformer who used photography to raise awareness for urban poverty. He became a reporter and wrote about individuals facing certain plights in order to garner sympathy for them. His book How the Other Half Lives caused people to try to reform the lives of people who lived in slums. He used vivid photographs and stories about individuals to call people to action. No one could argue with a picture, so his book showed urbanization and the problems that accompanied it very well. He wasn’t a very experienced photographer, so his pictures were relatively objective, and therefore somewhat trustworthy. His pictures were not pretty and did not gloss over the harsh realities of inner city life. His photos captured details of the slum that…
Jacob Riis played a central role in the debate over the causes and consequences of urban problems in the late 19th century. Riis was a photographer who started as a poor immigrant from Denmark. Initially Riis worked low paying jobs until he eventually found his calling in police reports and later photography. As a police reporter, Riis had unique access to the city’s slums. In the evenings, he would accompany law enforcement and members of the health department on raids of the tenements, witnessing the atrocities firsthand.…
Due to the slum being extremely dark, there weren’t any other way to show people how the slums were living, but it was thanks to the new invention of flash for the camera. Through the newly invented flash camera, Jacob Riis was able to show the people the truth of the inhumane living condition of the slum through his picture book, “How the Other Half Lives.” His approach is more like the saying, “Picture is worth a thousand words” and shows them what it’s like rather than tell what it’s…
Life’s editors largely dismissed many photographs that focused on the more affirmative events and procedures of everyday life. While Parks recorded the violence and aggression of the Midtowners, in the article, it mentions that Parks “made just as many pictures of intimate moments of quiet domesticity and boisterous, carefree Harlem street life.” (...). Photographs of Red Jackson’s brother reading, for instance, were rejected for publication. Likewise, images of children playing around an open fire hydrant or of Red Jackson attending to domestic chores were left out of the published article.…
Understanding the contexts in Shadows in the Mirror is really important as it deeply influences the reader interpretation of the novel. This book is about a life at an all boys wealthy private school, seen from the perspective of a boy named David Pollifrone. Three different types of contexts are going to be discussed further in this essay, these include the historical context, cultural context, and personal context.…
1. The simple and direct images in Dorothea Lange’s photographs provide ------- reflection of a bygone social milieu.…
Mirror by Sylvia Plath is a poem that deals with the unchanging and painful process of age and time which leads to people to try and change this by creating their own delusional world. Plath uses the technique of personification for the mirror. The poem is narrated from the point of a mirror. When Sylvia refers to the mirror as being not cruel and truthful, she means that what you see is not false, a mirror never lies since it can only show the truth. The poem is divided into 2 stanzas the first being the mirrors not so bright reflections and the second stanza in which the mirror has taken the embodiment of a lake and astral projections or spiritual ones in it.…
In the poem “Mirror” Sylvia Plath reflects the way society puts pressure on the way you look and can destroy you. “Mirror” is a poem told in first person by the reflection in the mirror. I believe that the mirror, the lake, and the woman are all one. She is judging herself the whole time through different objects, talking as if she is the mirror, the woman, and the lake.…
Ewald, W (2006) Photography Changes Personal History [online]. [12.1.2014]. Available from World Wide Web: http://click.si.edu/Story.aspx?story=242#top…