The Jacob Riis Series was based on a miniature diorama built out of clay that is in turn based on a particular Riis photograph that shows a group of “street urchins” playing in and around a wooden water barrel somewhere on NY’s lower east side around the turn of the last century. Jacob Riis was a photographer and social reformer who was also intent on capturing and exhibiting to wealthy patrons an image of urban vice in the form of poor and working class New Yorkers. As the images unfold so does an alternative history unfold regarding the imagined confrontation between Riis and the seemingly hapless subjects of his photography.

C-Prints and wooden frames varying in size from 2′ x 4′ to 2′ x 9′. 1995-96.