Before publishing his pioneering book How the Other Half Livesmdash;a photojournalistic investigation into the poverty of New Yorkrsquo;s tenement houses; home to three quarters of the cityrsquo;s populationmdash;Jacob Riis (1849-1914) spent his first years in the United States as an immigrant and itinerant laborer; barely surviving on his carpentry skills until he landed a job as a muckraking reporter. These early experiences provided Riis with an understanding of what it was like to be poor in the immigrant communities that populated New Yorkrsquo;s slums; and it was this empathy that would shine through in his iconic photos.With Rediscovering Jacob Riis; art historian Bonnie Yochelson and historian Daniel Czitrom place Jacob Riisrsquo;s images in historical context even as they expose a clear sightline to the present. In the first half of their book; Czitrom explores Riisrsquo;s reporting and activism within the gritty specifics of Gilded Age New York: its new immigrants; its political machines; its fiercely competitive journalism; its evangelical reformers; and its labor movement. In delving into Riisrsquo;s intellectual education and the lasting impact of How the Other Half Lives; Czitrom shows that though Riis argued for charity; not sociopolitical justice; the empathy that drove his work continues to inspire urban reformers today.In the second half of the book; Yochelson describes for the first time Riisrsquo;s photographic practice: his initial reliance on amateur photographers to take the photographs he needed; his own use of the camera; and then his collecting of photographs by professionals; who by 1900 were documenting social reform efforts for government agencies and charities. She argues that while Riis is rightly considered a revolutionary in the history of photography; he was not a photographic artist. Instead; Riis was a writer and lecturer who first harnessed the power of photography to affect social change.As staggering inequality continues to be an urgent political topic; this book; illustrated with nearly seventy of Riisrsquo;s photographs; will serve as a stunning reminder of what has changed; and what has not.
#3846118 in eBooks 2014-07-18 2014-07-18File Name: B00LXOKSAO
Review
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Art is a Gift; Not a CommodityBy Aniko Carmean"It is an assumption of this book that art is a gift; not a commodity."Hyde opens his treatise on the nature of Art as a gift with anthropological studies of gift exchange coupled with folklore. The diverse sources provide an excellent depiction of the two economies in which the artist (and her art) must participate. One economy is the visible; capitalistic one of which we are all aware in a daily; accounting-ledger way. This is the economy of commerce; and Hyde traces the origins of capitalistic wealth and usury; plumbing the disconnect between the "evergreen value" of art and the banal "exhaustible" value of capitalistic wealth. In opposition is the second economy; that of the gift. The gift economy is spiritual in nature; and the primary difference between it and commercial economy is that grasping at or hoarding a gift destroys the gift economy. The gift must move to participate in the economy; and many of the folktales illustrate that treating a gift as a commodity results in loss; sorrow; or even death.Perhaps understanding how opposed such an economy is to our (Western) way of coalescing and amassing fortunes; Hyde provides a modern day example of the gift economy: Alcoholics Anonymous. In AA; the newcomer is taught that to keep the gift of sobriety; she must someday pass the gift of her hope; strength and experience to someone else. Like the gifts in the various anthropological studies; the value of the AA teachings are in the sharing of them; to wit the AA saying; "You have to give it away to keep it." In terms of an artist and her art; however; issues become blurry because there is the persistent need of the artist to clothe; feed; and shelter herself. If art is to be her living; how can she avoid killing the divinity of the gift and still traffic in it as a commodity? Hyde proposes that the artist must split herself into two modes of interacting with the different economies. Whitman and Ezra Pound are presented as cases studies of (somewhat) modern artists encountering the modern world impinging on their gifts. Whitman; it seems; stayed truer to his gift whereas some unnamed disappointment led Pound to pervert his gift into a hateful ideology. Hydes point here is that the artist; much like the ill-fated daughters of the opening folktale; will be damaged if he does not find a way to be true to his gift - despite all societal pressure to the contrary. A lost artist is one who cannot fulfill the gift by giving their art away; or who twist their art to some other purpose . This doesnt mean an artist must never accept money for her work; but that she must maintain the purity of her pursuit of producing and sharing the gift separate from her pursuit of money.How to do this; how to create and earn a living without subverting the nature of the gift? Hyde doesnt answer the question of how to preserve the gift in the modern world. Instead; he illustrates why it is imperiled by modern commerce. The epilog describes some common solutions for artists; including a long section on the rise and fall of American patronage (hint: it owes much to the Cold War). This section is the only place where the book; which was originally published in 1983; shows its age by failing to address the mechanism of crowdfunding. The employ of an agent is another common solution to the problem of working in two economies; the agent handles the commerce economy; thus freeing the artist to remain exclusively in the realm of the gift. The vast majority of modern artists; though; have solved the problem of money by having a "second job." As a writer myself; I love that Hyde puts the emphasis on the secondary nature of doing anything that is not a direct effort towards my gift and craft. THE GIFT: CREATIVITY AND THE ARTIST IN THE MODERN WORLD is a thought-provoking read for those who seek an understanding of the unseen forces that can cultivate or kill an artists gift.78 of 82 people found the following review helpful. This book redefines the "liberal arts"By Michael TiemannI enjoy reading books that expand my perspective; but this is one of the rare books that has truly altered it; or at least given me notice that alteration is necessary.What served me best in reading this book was the fact that it was one of only two I brought for a very long trip. This meant that I had plenty of time and less reason to be distracted. With this time I was able to pace myself through a somewhat slow beginning; tolerate the re-telling of some stories with which I was already familiar; and; by the end of Part 1; be willing to write a 4-star review of how amazing it was that Lewis Hyde could have so presciently defined the logic and sensibilities of the free software and free culture movements that would blossom within ten years of the book being published. His telling of the real establishment of capitalism--that begin with Martin Luther rather than Adam Smith; and the concomitant destruction of charitable customs in Western nations provide a far more cogent explanation of both the moral bankruptcy and the actual bankruptcy of globalism than Ive heard in more than one hundred hours of NPR news stories. And his explanations are spot-on for what I am seeing as a person who is involved with; and invests in; community development and sustainability. Indeed; I think it would make especially good reading in faith communities that also have a social community mission.Then Mr. Hyde lets the other shoe drop: "the gift" describes not only the cultural practices that made economies flourish under conditions beyond the abilities or cares of capitalism; but also the human practices that enable the "genius" of creativity to flourish. The depth of his insights are staggering; and in the end they recontextualized a good portion of my own liberal arts education.I am delighted to have read it; and look forward to applying its lessons to everything I do going forward; starting with buying enough copies to begin giving them away...0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Excellent Read!By bI liked the book overall and there were many good points established by the author regarding the overall concept of the artist producing their works as gifts instead of material commodities. Many thorough examples of the applications of the authors thematic approach and also highlights how artists in the past have led parallel lives along the same concept that the author tries to invoke. Although; there are a few points in the book which I struggled with understanding or perhaps have a difference of opinion regarding the views of the author I feel in summation that the book has changed my opinions on the way artistic works are produced and how they should be viewed by a society driven by material wealth and conspicuous consumption.
