Sebastiao Salgardo’s Activist Photography Essay

Jacob Riis’ book How the Other Half Lives is a detailed description on the poor and the destitute in the inner realms of New York City. Riis tries to portray the living conditions through the ‘eyes’ of his camera. He sneaks up on the people flashes a picture and then tells the rest of the city how the ‘other half’ is living. As shocking as the truth was without seeing such poverty and horrible conditions with their own eyes or taking in the experience with all their senses it still seemed like a million miles away or even just a fairy tale.

Activist are those people who are attracted by new challenges and experiences, they don't mind trying anything at least once and they put themselves in action

In Chapter 8 of After the Fact in the article, “The Mirror with a Memory” by James West Davidson and Mark Lytle, the authors tell the story of photography and of a man names Jacob Riis. Riis came from Scandinavia as a young man and moved to the United States. Riis firsthand experienced the bad conditions in the heart of the slums of New York. He worked from place to place, doing odd jobs until he found a job as a police reporter for the New York Tribune. Riis lived in a slum called “The Bend.” When he became a reporter, Riis aspired to make people see the awful conditions of “The Bend.” Riis was continuously disappointed because his articles did not receive much attention or sympathy he was looking for. He then vowed to write a book called

Through the late 1800s and the early 1900s, the division between financial classes was great. Big businesses and monopolies ruled the market, making great financial powers such as J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and more. On the other hand, middle to lower class citizens struggled to pay their bills, lived in houses of fifteen people, worked in mine shafts from the age of twelve, and had miserable lives in the city. The lives of the lower class was captured by Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis was an American journalist most famously known for his photographs of the slums of New York City. He compiled his photograph into a book called, How the Other Side Lives. This set of photographs inspired the social welfare reform effectively through American cities because it brought the issue to the people.

According to Document 1, Jacob Riis’, “How the Other Half Lives” was a book showing the conditions of the people living in tenements, and showed how the people there didn’t have proper air, and all of it was polluted because of the overcrowding of the small apartments they had to live in. The rooms were also really dark due to the lack of windows, and also

What is a teen activist? A teen activist is a teenager who wants to help people or animals for a cause. What I think about all teen activists is that they all fight for what they believe in. They go to extensive lengths to help people to help us. They don't do this because they have to they do it because they want to do it. They don't care that the odds were against them or they have very little chance of succeeding. They do what they want and the do it right.They are like the voice of the people fighting up against poverty and all the other struggles in the world. Most activists go through a lot like Malala but I won't get to deep into that yet. They all have the courage to do what they do.

The first thing I will write about is a person, Jacob Riis. A esteemed author of the book “How the other half Lives”, published in the 1890s. Riis was a pioneer in the time when photography was first starting to catch on. In Riis’s photos he took pictures of people who lived in the slums of the major cities and how they lived. He was termed a Muckraker by our late president Theodore Roosevelt, because journalists like him would, as he would say, rake through all the good things and bad on the ground and only report the bad of the world. But Riis was one of the men of his era

The paper will explore Abelardo Morell’s life, photographic career, and discusses how the Camera falls into his career. Also, this paper will include an art critic review of his artworks. Abelardo Morell is a renowned Cuban-born photographer in the field of Contemporary photography, known for his invention working methods, including the use of a Camera Obscura that represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City. He took the Camera Obscura out of the past and bring it toward the future. This paper hopes to give a reader an understanding of Abelardo Morell and Camera Obscura.

How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York (1890) was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. It served as a basis for future "muckraking" journalism by exposing the slums to New York City’s upper and middle classes. This work inspired many reforms of working-class housing, both immediately after publication as well as making a lasting impact in today's society. Vivid imagery and complex syntax establish a sympathetic tone which Riis uses to expose poverty to the general public and calls upon them to take action and make a difference.

Roberts organizes his book based on certain themes, such as culture and day-to-day life, paying special attention to the pre- and post-War periods so as to emphasize the evolution of the slum throughout the period of time covered. He divides it into chapters that cover specific aspects of society and day-to-day life in order to accentuate certain points. His writing style is a unique and well-chosen blend of personal reminiscences and historical research. Much of his writing, including his own experiences, is presented in a very matter-of-fact way. The impact this style has on the reader is great because he is able to state such horrors so bluntly, as only someone who was truly there can. Occasionally, however, his emotions break through, as is evident in his explanation of his parents' separation and subsequent death on page 238. Lastly, the work is scholarly and concise, as Roberts chooses to get straight to the point and elaborate on it rather than saying the same thing in many different ways.

In Jacob Riis’s work How the Other Half Lives, he exposes the poor quality of the slums in New York during the late nineteenth century. While speaking about the conditions of the slums Riis writes, “The metropolis is to lots of people like a lighted candle to the moth” (Riis, 66). Through the comparison of the metropolis to the attraction of a moth to a lighted candle, Riis conveys the desire of the masses from all over the world to come to the United States to start their new lives. It is the idea of a fulfillment of the ‘American Dream.’ However, there is often a discrepancy between the expectation and reality of this situation. The discrepancy between the expected and reality of immigrating to the city has a connection to the wider world

For some, a picture is just a beautiful work of art, but for Lewis Hine photography was a way to communicate a message to the world. When Hine was taught the photographic process, it was still being established. This being said, photojournalism was also just evolving as a method to visually communicate information. In an effort to better his photography skills, Hine began to photograph the immigrants of Ellis Island. He was very adamant about social reform and reflected this in his work. Lewis Hine’s captivating photos inspired social change in America for the less fortunate.

An activist is someone who fights for the rights of their fellow men. Activists seek social justice when there is none, and they strive to be an example to others in need of faith. An example of this would be an activist who seeks an end to corporal punishment, and through their work inspires others to also support their cause. My brother-in-law David Mendoza said, “Activists feel strongly about a certain subject, such as environmentalists who want to end things that harm the environment like polluting.” My wife Veronica said, “An activist is someone who stands up for their beliefs and wants to start a movement.” As seen by the preceding quotes, activists desire a better world that supports their beliefs.

With the help of her art teacher, in high school, she found the perfect profession: To be a filmmaker. She started her study at the prestigious University of Buenos Aires. Before she finished she started work as a cameraman and video editor, first in a record company, in the visual area, later, as editor in an important company located in Buenos Aires. She always had a special interest for travelers, for immigrants, interest to know how it felt, to live between two worlds. She graduated as an audiovisual designer with a thesis on the subject.

Many photographers use their photographic skills to achieve certain and specific goals or for clients. But Sebastiao Salgado is a photographer who uses his talents as an artist to bring light to subjects that are often overlooked in an effort to help raise awareness. He works hard to capture the right image to show the viewers exactly what message he is trying to convey. Sebastiao Salgado’s photos are all very powerful, they raise awareness, and his photos benefit the viewer as well as the subjects in the images.