The Short Tail Gang. Corlears Hook under the Pier at the foot of Jackson Street

Jacob August Riis was an American photographer and journalist who documented the living conditions of poor immigrants and working-class families in New York City's tenement districts during the 1880s and 1890s. His use of flash photography, then a novel technique, illuminated interiors previously hidden from public view, transforming social documentary into a tool for reform. Riis's photographs accompanied his written investigations and were collected in the 1890 book How the Other Half Lives, which exposed overcrowding, disease, and child labor to middle-class audiences. His work established photography as a vehicle for social advocacy and shaped early twentieth-century progressive reform efforts.