Jacob Riis Riis described the poor living conditions in New York City tenements. Riis’s descriptions and photographs helped open people’s eyes to the problems around them.

How would you describe these pictures How would you describe these pictures? What connotation do these words have?

Riis was one of the first artists to use flash photography. How did the stillness that this technology required affect his choice of subject matter and the time of day in which he worked?

Childe Hassam Hassam depicted New York City in the same time period as Riis but in a strikingly different way.

“Village Scene”

“Winter in Union Square”

“Flags on Fifty-Seventh Street: Winter of 1918”

How would you describe these pictures How would you describe these pictures? Why do you think Hassam chose the colors and patterns that he did? Do you believe this is what the scene actually looked like? Hassam’s paintings are very different from Riis’. What do you think was the cause for this difference?