Critical Analysis Of Riis Life, By Davison And Lytle

The author addresses this article from one main perspective. Davison and Lytle use a social lens to analyze and describe Riis' life. This is important because if helped to highlight the effects of Riis' journalism and photography as well as giving insight to the responses of the people to what he had to say. We see this when the author wrote, "The quality of living in cities changed, too… wealthy fled along newly constructed trolley and rail lines to the quiet of developing suburbs. Enterprising realtors either subdivided or replaced the mansions of the rich with tenements, in which maximum number people could be packed into a minimum of space" (page 204). The wealthy people left their homes in the rapidly developing cities for a quieter retreat
Riis was known first for his journalism in newspapers. In the article, the authors used Riis writings to explain his photographs, "…in order to evaluate the messages in the Riis photographs, we must first supplement our knowledge of his perspectives on the city by turning to his writings" (page 214). Riis is now known for the impact he had as a photographer. I believe this is because of how much more successful his message was accepted when the public was first shown the photographs of how people were living. He was also one of the first people to recognize the potential for the camera which also catapulted him in terms of recognition for photography rather than journalism. I was also surprised by how effective he made photography, even though it was still in its infancy. The technology was so new that, "…when Riis began his photographic efforts, he quickly discovered that the primitive nature of photography precluded too much attention to aesthetic details…in the 1800s taking a picture was no simple matter. Each step of the photographic process presented formidable obstacles" (page 209). The invention of the camera was revolutionary in many ways and provided means to distribute still images that were unexaggerated due to artist flair in sketches. Even with all of its benefits it was still very bulky and required time and commitment in order to get the photo and develop
This helped the reader to fully understand his impact and how he changed society throughout his lifetime. Davidson and Lytle helped the reader to understand the intricacies of Riis' photography and his journalism and how they both played a part in understanding the struggles of the poor and the immigrants during this time. Riis is an excellent example of how someone can make a difference from any walk of life and can use techniques they would not have used in other