Jacob Riis and the iconic ‘Street Arabs’

The iconic photograph I selected is entitled “Street Arabs In The Area of Mulberry Street” by Jacob Riis. The New York Times claimed Riis as “America’s first photojournalist,” (Hug 41). The photo was taken in a series of photographs that Riis called Street Arabs in Sleeping Quarters, which was a part of the book, How The Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York.  This book highlighted the life of immigrants in New York City slums during the late 1880s. This book by Jacob Riis was used to expose the poor living conditions to the upper class society. Most of his photos focused on the poor living conditions, poor working conditions, and poverty that immigrants had to go through.

His photographs and articles were not initially published because editors thought they were too disturbing for the public. So instead of publishing the photos in magazines and newspapers, Riis decided to put together the book, How The Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. The title of the book speaks directly to what Riis wanted to accomplish, one half of the world seeing how the other half lives.

Being an immigrant himself, Riis decided to document these conditions for the public to see. He thought that the greed and neglect by the upper classes greatly influenced the way immigrants went through their lives. He hoped that through his photographs and his book, the wealthy would see that they are morally obligated to help out those in need.

This photograph, and the others in the ‘Street Arabs’ series highlight children sleeping in the streets. The term ‘Street Arab’ refers to the children of the time who were beggars, and often homeless. A common term that also described these children was ‘street urchins.’ This photo speaks to how poverty affected the children and made the issue more relatable to all ages. Essentially, the photo showed that poverty does not only affect the adults and breadwinners of the families, but children as well.

This composition of this photograph is powerful in a lot of different ways. The first thing to look at is the angle at which the photograph was taken. Using a low angle, Riis connects the viewer to the subjects by getting down to the children’s level. This effect lets the viewer see the subjects as equals. If the photograph was taken from a higher angle, the expression on the kids’ faces would not have been captured, and the viewer would be looking down on the children. When looking down, the viewer is led to believe they have power and authority, but I believe that by taking this photograph at a lower angle, the viewer is able to connect with the children as the viewer has been lowered to their status.

The lighting of the photograph is used in a way so that emotion can be expressed. The children’s faces are illuminated so that their emotion is captured. Overall, the lighting is bright so that detail can be seen. The clothes they are wearing, the bare feet, and the detail of their sleeping quarters help the viewer experience what the kids are dealing with. The details that the lighting shows are important because they pull at the viewer’s emotions. The photograph captures sadness by showing the facial expression of the child on the left. Being able to see the concern on the child’s face connects to the viewer’s emotion of sadness and empathy. Another detail that is importantly lit is the bare feet of the children. At first glance, the children look properly clothed with hats, jackets, and pants. But when taking a look at the detail, we see that the kids lack proper footwear and the sense of poverty strikes the viewer. Again, the viewer feels bad for the kids and the feelings of sadness and empathy are present again. Riis describes children in his book as, “naturally neither vicious nor hardened, simply weak and undeveloped,” (Riis cited in Hug 52).

Another important compositional choice by Riis is the use of space in the photograph. The children are positioned in the frame that shows their stature as low and alone in society. They are not too close in the frame – which may cause the viewer to lose sight of the setting and the surroundings. They are not positioned too far back – which may cause the expression on the children’s faces to be lost. The photograph is close enough to see the expression and detail, but far enough to see the surroundings they are in.

Although I do not believe the photograph was staged, the grouping of the children is also effective in creating emotion. Having two children in the leftmost-third of the frame show the need for each other to survive, as the children seem to be trying to keep warm or to be as comfortable as they can be. The one child on the right seems to be more alone. It makes the viewer wonder why he is by himself and why he isn’t leaning on the other two. The creation of a story begins in the viewers mind because of the space between the children.

Like stated earlier, Riis’ goal for his book was to show the real life situations of the immigrants living in the slums in New York City. This photograph shows how poverty struck families and put kids out on the street to fend for themselves. Street Arabs – kids who are homeless and beggars – are an important part of seeing how poverty affects everyone in society, and the use of kids helps illustrate that adults are not the only ones affected. At the time, this photograph spoke to wealthy people as Riis’ publication aimed to advocate for the poor and get the upper class to help out the poor. I can see this photograph hitting hard because children are, like Riis claims, “weak and undeveloped.” Kids need all the help they can get. Their being totally dependant on others is not unlike that of the poor needing the help of others.

This photograph aims for the heartstrings of Americans, and pulling at the viewer’s emotions in many ways. The sadness on the children’s faces, the poverty that leaves them shoeless, and the shaping of a story through their positioning leads viewers to empathize with the children. Even today, Riis’ work is seen as inspiration to photojournalists. “Today [Riis’] legacy resonates in heartrending contemporary images that transform the poor from faceless abstractions into human beings, just as his own did in the 1890’s” (Roberts cited in Hug 41).