Bohemian Cigarmakers at Work in Their Tenement
Jacob August Riis
American, born Denmark. 1849–1914
1889
A gelatin silver photograph by Jacob A. Riis that records Bohemian cigarmakers—an immigrant family laboring in a cramped tenement—made to document and expose harsh living and working conditions to a wider public.
The room’s tight, dim interior grabs you first: a bearded man and a woman bent over a low workbench, wooden tubs and rough fabrics crowding the foreground, and barefoot children seated nearby, all rendered in stark textures and shadow that feel immediate and intimate.
This image is an early instance of documentary photojournalism—Riis used such interior photographs (often aided by flash techniques) to reveal urban poverty and help galvanize Progressive-era housing and labor reforms.
Medium
Gelatin silver print, printed 1957
Dimensions
6 3/16 × 4 13/16" (15.7 × 12.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Museum of the City of New York
Accession
337.1964
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
