30 Photograph Challenge

Top Ten Works Collage

Artist of The Week: Jacob Riis

This photo is greatly representative of the poverty filling the tenements of New York, Jacob Riis successfully began a movement to expose and change the poverty within the United States by photography using its ability to show people the details of things that are uncomfortable to be aware of. This photograph was taken in a dark room using fill flash, the cramped living quarters and unsanitary conditions that fill the picture are all reflective of this photograph's powerful nature and the way in which it sparked change. 

This photograph by Jacob Riis is on homeless news boys, it's incredibly powerful because it shows that even young children such as these have to work. Even while doing so, they are unable to sustain themselves. The photograph is taken in a very powerful way because it shows the scratched and dirty walls in the background and shows these kids in the corner, sending a more powerful message than a different background such a city streets, also, by showing the kids sleeping huddled together, it asks questions like what happened to their families and how did they end up together. Another moving work captured by Jacob Riis.

Weekly Vocabulary

1. Flash Lamp - Also known as a flash tube, this is used white light for a short period of time, they are electrically powered arcs used for photographing with flash.

2. Arc Lamp - Uses an electric arc as a light source or flash.

3. Yablochov candle - Electro carbon arc lamp invented in 1876.

4. Triptych - An artwork composed of three pieces that are perceived or appreciated together.

Weekly Vocabulary

1. Fill Flash - Used to "fill" areas with light using a flash, normally on dark backgrounds and difficult places, useful for equaling the light level of the subject of a photograph and its background with flash.

2. Documentary Photographer - A photography who captures a series of events with a camera in order to make a chronography of significant events within life.

3. Magnesium Flare -  A chemical flare which is a magnesium ribbon used in the past for photography as a form of fill flash, especially famous for its use with Jacob Riis.