Camparison: an examination of two or more items to establish similarities and dissimilarities

Two progressive photographers, two revolutionary muckrakers, and two men with cameras and a desire to shine a light on the truth. Jacob Riis and Sebastiao Salgado weren't all that different. They both took pictures of the uglier not-that-fab lives of people who weren't as fortunate as many of us and were forced to make ends meet by doing hard, not well paying work. Though they were about as similar as can be, they were also extremely different. Unlike Riis, Salgado was not limited to just taking pictures of the United States. In fact, the majority of his photos are actually from other, mainly 3rd world, countries, causing us to see how lucky we are in comparison and how fortunate we are to be living in a country that so often takes advantage of all that its given. However, some of Riis's photographs are even more horrific, they showed what was really going on in America in that time period. They exposed how the slums and working class of the U.S. actually were.

Sebastiao Salgado

 

This is, when first looked upon, simply a picture of a girl, but look harder and you see her messy dark hair is swept out of her dark skin and slightly covering one of her dark eyes. You see in her hand a pen, with it she writes on her only slightly worn out notebook. Her face is twisted into an unpleasant emotion. Is she upset? Confused? Frustrated? 

This next photo shows an old woman with two young children. They're in a doorway on a hill in a desert, however, there's no building or house to which the door leads up to. Beyond the empty wooden doorway you can see nothing besides an empty dull gray sky. The surrounding of the doorway is made of what looks to be over sized branches, giving the environment a very poor feel.

If you look at this picture you'll merely see a sad, slightly dark skinned woman, clothed in a black shawl of some sort. But if you look into the eyes of this woman, you see tears, you also see a pool of worry, pain, fear, sorrow, anger and despair.What could possibly have hurt her so?

http://masters-of-photography.com/S/salgado/salgado_chimborazo_full.html
 http://jenberry.com/blog/2009/07/

Jacob Riis

Home is where the heart is, in this case there must be three hearts lying in the street. These young boys were photographed sleeping in the street near and atop a barrel next to a flight of stairs. Life is probably hard for these three boys. Who knows what they have to do to live, perhaps they work in factories along their families who they hardly ever see.

How sweet a sight this picture is! Is there anything cuter than one sibling caring for another? Well, in this case, the sweetness has gone bitter. Notice the dresser and barrel found in this alley, is this their home? Well, not everyone in this period lived in the typical 2 story living-room-and-all sort of house. Some people ended up having to live on the streets and working at factories just to make ends meet.

http://amyvermillion.com/blog/page/2/
http://www.uic.edu/depts/oee/fasi/riissequence.html

Introduction: a preliminary treatise or course of study

For my social studies class, I was given a choice of what I could do for my project on Chapter 19 of my textbook, which focuses on the downside of industrialization, progressivists, and the groups of people, like women, African Americans, Mexicans, and Asians, who gained their inalienable rights during this time period. So for this project I will be analyzing the photography of Jacob Riis and Sabastiao Salgado, both of whom are the photographers of let's call it the dark side. They took pictures of those who struggled, those who had to fight in order to make ends meet. They didn't take pictures of the luxuries that we so often take advantage of, instead they photographed the uncomfortable truths that we try to hide in the back of our heads. They shine a light on reality, and I'll be analyzing that light.