Urban poverty in New York of the late nineteenth century

Jacob Riis was the author of How the other half lives , a series of photographs that captured the squalor of Lower East Side of Manhattan of the 1880's ,in what is now considered a pioneering attempt at photojournalism.The images must have been far more shocking and compelling then, for modern readers have been  de-sensitized  to photos that depict extreme poverty.Some of the photos are reminiscent of  pictures from Auschwitz.It's strange to imagine that  the descendants of these mostly European immigrants are probably regular New Yorkers today.

Photograph titled 'five cents a spot',referring to the  price for a place to sleep on the floor of a tenement.

Children  sleeping in Mulberry Street(1890)