Room in a Tenement Flat
Artist
Jacob August Riis
(American, 1849–1914)
Printerprinted by
Alexander Alland
(Ukrainian, active in Turkey and the United States, 1902–1989)
Date1910
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensions23.3 x 19.5 cm (image), 24.3 x 20.4 cm (sheet)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineStoddard Acquisition Fund
Object number2003.45
Label TextBeginning in the nineteenth century, low-rise urban houses were transformed into multi-family dwellings as more people crowded American cities. Immigrants who arrived to the United States in search of opportunity filled these buildings—known as tenements—to capacity. Most residents lived in poverty and were subject to substandard living conditions. Photographer Jacob Riis was among the first to document the miserable settings of New York City’s tenements as early as the 1880s. Working over a half century later, Bruce Davidson focused his camera on the daily lives of New Yorkers in all their variety. Both photographers presented a mosaic of faces set against the grim masonry of an industrial landscape transforming into a modern financial capital.ProvenanceG.W. Einstein Co., New York, NYOn View
Not on view
