6. Jacob Riis Took His First Photographs on Hart Island

Hart Island-NYC-East River-Vintage Photos-Jacob RiisHart Island photographs by Jacob Riis

According to Melinda Hunt, who runs the Hart Island Project, “When [Jacob Riis] first acquired a camera in the 1890s, the first place that he went was Potter’s Field.” He describes Hart Island in the book, How The Other Half Lives:

One free excursion awaits young and old whom bitter poverty has denied the poor privilege of the choice of the home in death they were denied in life, the ride up the Sound to the Potter’s Field, charitably styled the City Cemetery. But even there they do not escape their fate. In the common trench of the Poor Burying Ground they lie packed three stories deep, shoulder to shoulder, crowded in death as they were in life, to “save space;” for even on that desert island the ground is not for the exclusive possession of those who cannot afford to pay for it.

On the 100th Anniversary of Riis’ first photograph, Melinda Hunt and photographer Joel Sternfeld photographed the island using the same 8×10 format Riis used. These photos were published in the book Hart Island: Discovery of an Unknown Territory.