Not a piece of impressive journalism, but a devastatingly important piece of history. Jacob Riis photography of the slums of New York and subsequent book of same capture lives not much reflected upon. If I was in charge of any educational curriculum anywhere, I would make this required reading. The photography brings home in a way that a thousand dry texts could not how little people with money are concerned with the welfare of those without. There are those championing the cause of reform and they are given credit here—but they are struggling against tall odds and fighting for crumbs off the big table. The brutality and squalor of New York tenement life about the turn of the century is so vividly presented that I often wondered if it were a movie I had seen before but forgotten or if I had traveled in time and walked right into the scene. So much of our vision is directed upward towards achievement that we don’t look down to those being crushed beneath progress. It is important to recognize that those being photographed are not visiting poverty for the photo op but that they wake up to it in the morning, breath it in all day long and sleep with it at night—the grind never leaves their skin. Another book that struck me the same way was Jacob Holdt’s AMERICAN PICTURES where a Dutch photographer traveled below the poverty line in the American 1970’s soaking up the social struggles and despair of daily life. Can’t recommend either of these works enough to reshape your view of the world.