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The Making of The Other Half introduces a new theoretical approach
to the study of Jacob A. Riis, the Danish-born photographer and
reporter, who revolutionized the American tenement reform movement
on the eve of the 19th century. Dag Petersson proposes a tailored
mode of analysis, Discourse Mutation Theory, capable of probing
into the shifting perceptions of immigration and tenement poverty
that thanks to Riis's work gained a foothold across America. This
sweeping change was an epistemic event sparked by the publication
of How the Other Half Lives in 1890. In this seminal book, and in
countless reform publications and illustrated lectures, Riis
presented the Other Half as a destitute population to be otherwise
perceived, understood and helped toward prosperity. Riis's primary
contributions to the reform movement was the establishment of a new
charity object: the truth about the Other Half. Petersson raises
original questions about its unveiling and proposes an alternative
mode of inquiry as well a reorientation of empirical research. The
Making of The Other Half pays particular attention to the surge of
reform movements in Copenhagen during Riis's residence in the city
prior to his emigration to America. The discursive migration that
took place along with Riss's journey from Copenhagen to New York is
crucial for understanding the subsequent mutation event. By
recognizing this parallel migration, a new history of Riis's work
is revealed, and a new dimension of the Other Half opens up.
Since its inception in the 19th century, photography has brought to
light a vast array of represented subjects. Always situated in some
spatial order, photographic representations have been operatively
underpinned by social, technical, and institutional mechanisms.
Geographically, bodily, and geometrically, the camera has
positioned its subjects in social structures and hierarchies, in
recognisable localities, and in iconic depth constructions which,
although they show remarkable variation, nevertheless belong
specifically to the enterprises of the medium. This is the subject
of Representational Machines: How photography enlists the workings
of institutional technologies in search of establishing new iconic
and social spaces. Together, the contributions to this edited
volume span historical epochs, social environments, technological
possibilities, and genre distinctions. Presenting several distinct
ways of producing space photographically, this book opens a new and
important field of inquiry for photography research.
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