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Press Release | Amsterdam, December 2017

The Other Half – The Activist Photography of Jacob Riis
16 February – 15 April 2018
In 1870, the Danish immigrant Jacob Riis (1849-1914) arrived in New York City, aged twenty-one and penniless. This background stimulated his concern for the poor living conditions of inhabitants of the city’s Lower East Side. In time, his concern propelled him to become an important journalist and social reformer. In addition, he is now viewed as one of the founders of documentary photography.
Riis used the camera as a means to help …