Photography: Jacob Riis And Dorothea Lange

Photography is the science, art, application and practice of creating images by recording light or by other electromagnetic pulses. It can be done electronically by means of an image sensor. It can also be done chemically a light sensitive material like photographic film. Photography was a form of art that expanded and evolved between the 1840’s and the earl 19th centuries. Jacob Riis, and Dorothea Lange where two photographers that played a vital part in the evolution of photography at this time. Jacob Riis was born on May 3, 1849, in Denmark, and immigrated to the United States in 1870 on a ship. Upon his arrival in New York City, Riis struggled his way through various jobs. His jobs consisted of an ironworker, farmer, bricklayer, and salesman. All of these jobs gave him a very close look at the poor side of the American urban living. In 1873, Riis became a police reporter, and he quickly found that his deep dive into New York’s underbelly was just beginning. His beat was the Lower East Side, a neighborhood riddled with crime and poverty. With a …show more content…
Dorothea Lange was born on May 26, 1895, New Jersey. When she was 7, Dorothea was diagnosed polio. Art and literature were huge parts of Lange’s young life. Her parents both had strong influences for her education. Lange decided to start pursuing photography in high school. She later went on to study photography at Columbia University. By 1918, Lange was living in San Francisco and managing a prosperous portrait workshop. Lange’s first documentary photography came in the 1920s when she spent a lot of time taking pictures of Native Americans. She also captured many great depression photos because it was prevalent during her time. Lange’s most well-known portrait is the, Migrant Mother. This is an iconic imag from this period that portrayed the sufferings and agony of what so many Americans were dealing