Class Discussion Response-How the Other Half Lives

First of all, I was very surprised that my question "Why do you think Riis cares about "how the other half lives?"" had so many different responses. For me the answer was obvious that he just wanted to help poor people by letting everybody know how they lived and that they needed some support. Maybe it was because I knew his background a little from the other sources. Students also seemed very excited when they had a chance to answer the Anna's question "Are there still poor housing conditions today? What parts?". It was interesting to listen different stories about the really horrible overcrowded apartments. Some students described areas in the New York City and in Brooklyn, that are so packed with Chinese immigrants, that even if the kids die in these families, nobody knows, because they all look the same and have no legal rights to live here. It seemed like we are talking about 1800, but not about the today's life. Then prof. Davis showed us the real photos, taken in 1800-1900 by Riis and Hine. They portrayed people living in poverty and in a very bad conditions. They were projected on a big screen in a good quality,(even though black and white), so everybody could see them. Almost everyone in the classroom were involved in the discussion of these pictures. Finally,we all agreed that Hine's pictures are pretty positive and have a lot of light and open space. Women and kids on his pictures seemed happy and careless. Riis' showed these same people in a very dark and dirty setting, mostly in a small apartments that had no windows. Men in his pictures looked very tired, hungry and desperate. It's interesting to observe how the people from the same neighborhood can be portrayed in two completely opposite ways. In my opinion, even though people looked much better in Hine's photos, Riis' works brought them more happiness by dragging Government's attention to their needs. Anyway, the class discussion went well and active as usually!:)