In the early 19th century, a Danish immigrant named Jacob Riis set out to change the slums of New York City. Jacob, born in Denmark in 1849, immigrated to America at age 21, with little money in his pockets, seeking work in the Northeast. He ended up working in several jobs including farming, sales and iron working. In 1873, he found work at a local newspaper as a police reporter covering stories that eventually took him into the heart of the working-class slums. It was this twist of fate that led Jacob to write his book, "How the Other Half Lives," and push social reform to pass New York State's Tenement House Act of 1901. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. Riis worked at the Mulberry Street police station as a police reporter. There he made professional acquittals with all kinds of police officials, including Theodore Roosevelt, the president of the New York City Police Board. While working there, Riis learned which stories to publish and which to keep to himself, so that his career and professional relationships would continue. In one case, Riis was presented, in confidence, with a story about an affair known at the time only to Police Commissioner Matthews, and he almost published it. The commissioner advised against speaking to anyone about the matter because it would be of no use. Riis insisted on publishing it when Matthews changed the subject by offering Jacob the handles of an electric drum kit, which Matthews was using for medical reasons at the time. As Jacob said in his autobiography, “I took them, unaware, and felt the current tingling on my fingertips. The next moment it gripped me like a vice. I writhed in pain. (Riis, 1901, p216)” This is one of many anecdotes reminiscent of Jacob's time with the Mulberry police, as they were not always on his side. During Jacob's many trips along Mulberry Street and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he would hear about the decay of the slums. As he says: "It was during my nightly visits with the health police that the desire kept arising in me that there was a way to show people what I had seen there." (Riis, 1901, p266)” So he decided to take up photography to immortalize this horrible environment, because his sketches did not represent what he saw very well. While reading the newspaper, Jacob came across an article describing a way to take photographs in low light: "A way has been discovered, it said, to take pictures with a flashlight." With this excitement, he sought out Dr. John Nagle, who worked with the Department of Health as well as being an amateur photographer, to help him with this new research to light up the Bend tenements, a particularly bad part of Mulberry Street. Jacob gathered a group of amateur night photographers along with some police officers to try to photograph the Bend, with little to no success. All the light cartridges were kept in large revolvers which, when carried about by several men after midnight, frightened many of the tenants to death, who ran away before any reasonable photograph could be taken. After this setback, Jacob hired his own photographer to help him. The photographer proved unreliable in the early hours of the morning and also sold all the photos taken behind Jacob's back. This forced Jacob to learn photography on his own, taking a camera with some plates to Potter's Field and, as a result, overexposing all the photos he took there. After nearly burning down his house, Riis perfected his photography and made it work for himthe "Blitzlicht - literally, flash light" by running it in a pan. Blitzlicht was made possible by mixing magnesium and potassium chlorate to create a short but powerful flash of light. This allowed him to begin work on his book, How the Other Half Live: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890). Jacob Riis began documenting urban decay from Mulberry Bend and Five Points. Taking photos in the late hours, he would come upon unsuspecting residents with the bright glare of his flash. This type of photography is evident in his photo, “Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement — “Five Cents a Spot”,” where six or perhaps seven men are seen sleeping in a cramped apartment. In 1887, Jacob took a photo of a group of men in wide-brimmed hats, "...loitering in an alley known as 'Bandits' Roost' (Johnson, 2019)" Riis continued his crusade through Five Points taking photographs in the late at night using Blitzlicht. Shortly thereafter, Jacob gathered all the photos he thought he needed and finished his book, publishing it in 1890. Roosevelt, who read the book, stopped by Riis's employer, The Evening Sun, and left him a note simply stating : “come to help. (Riis, 1901, p328)” The two began to patrol the streets together at night. Roosevelt was examining the way the police carried out their duties, in particular whether they were conscious or not. much more than patrols, "sometimes we went to inspect the houses while the tenants slept." Overcrowding was a crime at the time and the police were in a situation where they were responsible for managing the slums and the underbelly of Five Points. The police, however, had the same problem with their station's quarters, where homeless people could stay overnight. The police quarters had serious health problems ranging from typhus, which broke out in 1891, to damp floorboards and dirty used as beds. Riis took photos of these quarters and brought the negatives to the Academy of Medicine, “…the doctors knew the true extent of the danger we were facing then. (Riis, 1901, p256)” With Teddy Roosevelt, Jacob went to each of the living quarters and inspected them. Roosevelt brought rapid reform to New York City police housing, despite its appearance, "yellow newspapers...printed cartoons of homeless people trembling before a barred door 'locked by order of T. Roosevelt' (Riis, 1901 , p259) “Five years after the typhus epidemic, the police quarters closed permanently. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Jacob faced opposition at every turn as he began his quest to reform Mulberry Bend and Five Points. Tammany Hall politicians, department heads of the Mulberry Police Department, and members of yellow journalism made Jacob's life more difficult, further tempering his determination to take up photography and document the living situation in New York City. Following his publications and work with Theodore Roosevelt, the Five Points became Mulberry Bend Park. With the invention of Blitzlicht, Jacobs became a pioneer of flash photography, "but no one would have predicted that its first mainstream use would come in the form of a crusade against urban poverty." Works Cited Johnson, C. (2019). Bandit Roost: Photograph by Jacob Riis. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/lens/bandits-roost-the-photography-of-jacob-riis.htmlKheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives. (2018). Papers of Jacob A. Riis. Cornell University Library.PBS. (2003). New York: A Documentary Film - Episode 3. PBS...