How do you think Jacob Riis’ perspective as an immigrant himself might have motivated him to capture the images of tenement housing? In the 1800’s, New York City grew at a rapid pace and became a thriving city of culture, wealth, and innovation. However, not all residents were wealthy. Many lived in total poverty and dangerous living conditions, especially new immigrants. Jacob Riis immigrated to the United States in 1870; first working as a carpenter, he eventually was able to secure a job as a news reporter at The New York Tribune. After some time, he was assigned to be a police reporter and reported on crimes in the New York City slums and tenements. This gave him a firsthand look at the tenements of the Lower East Side of Manhattan where most of the newly arriving immigrants lived. After months of documenting the unsafe living conditions in tenements, Jacob Riis gave a speech and displayed his photographs of the tenements at a church; the talk was titled How the Other Half Lives.