WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.839 Welcome to the deep dive. We've got an incredibly 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:06.360 compelling mission for today's exploration. We 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:09.779 really do. Yeah. We are zeroing in on a single 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:13.839 profoundly powerful primary source. It's from 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:16.480 circa 1890. Right at the height of the Gilded 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.899 Age. Exactly. And it's a black and white photograph 00:00:18.899 --> 00:00:21.699 taken by the Danish -American photographer and 00:00:21.699 --> 00:00:24.820 social reformer, Jacob Rees. And the title of 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:28.789 this image is just simply ice grips. Right. And 00:00:28.789 --> 00:00:30.670 if you've ever been fascinated by the birth of 00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:33.549 social documentary photography or just the untold 00:00:33.549 --> 00:00:35.909 stories of everyday resilience, this is... This 00:00:35.909 --> 00:00:37.770 will completely change how you view archival 00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:40.509 images. Totally. So for the listener, our focus 00:00:40.509 --> 00:00:42.670 today is really the girl who's scrubbed. We're 00:00:42.670 --> 00:00:45.189 unpacking Jacob Riis' eye scrubs and how this 00:00:45.189 --> 00:00:47.369 one unsmiling nine -year -old girl helped to 00:00:47.369 --> 00:00:49.810 entirely shift the ethical landscape of photography. 00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:52.189 And social reform in New York City. Yeah. So 00:00:52.189 --> 00:00:53.929 to set the stage, we are dropping right into 00:00:53.929 --> 00:00:56.490 the late 19th century, like you said, circa 1890. 00:00:56.670 --> 00:01:00.090 Which is just an era of intense, rapid industrialization. 00:01:00.469 --> 00:01:02.429 Massive waves of immigration. And absolutely 00:01:02.429 --> 00:01:04.810 crushing poverty in these urban centers. Now, 00:01:04.930 --> 00:01:07.349 a lot of you listening might be familiar with 00:01:07.349 --> 00:01:10.569 Jacob Reese's really famous 1890 book, How the 00:01:10.569 --> 00:01:12.829 Other Half Lives. Right. It's basically a landmark 00:01:12.829 --> 00:01:16.069 piece of social reform. It is. But today, we're 00:01:16.069 --> 00:01:18.709 focusing on the sequel to that book, which was 00:01:18.709 --> 00:01:21.469 published in 1892. The Children of the Poor. 00:01:21.730 --> 00:01:24.549 Yes. OK, let's unpack this. Because what was 00:01:24.549 --> 00:01:28.150 the driving force behind Reese writing a sequel 00:01:28.150 --> 00:01:30.450 so quickly? Well, the driving force was really 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:32.870 this realization that the first book, I mean, 00:01:32.989 --> 00:01:35.200 as groundbreaking as it was. It painted with 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:37.560 a very broad brush. Exactly. With How the Other 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:40.700 Half Lives, Reese was taking aim at general poverty. 00:01:40.829 --> 00:01:43.609 The structural score. The overcrowding, the disease. 00:01:43.709 --> 00:01:46.090 Yeah. But with the children of the poor, his 00:01:46.090 --> 00:01:48.730 focus just narrows dramatically. He pivots to 00:01:48.730 --> 00:01:51.450 a very specific demographic. Right. A group that 00:01:51.450 --> 00:01:53.510 was falling through the cracks of even the most 00:01:53.510 --> 00:01:55.670 well -intentioned reform efforts. The children 00:01:55.670 --> 00:01:58.310 of the poorer classes. And specifically, children 00:01:58.310 --> 00:02:00.390 who are already participating in the grueling 00:02:00.390 --> 00:02:03.030 labor force at just a startlingly young age. 00:02:03.390 --> 00:02:06.140 Yeah. Reese isn't walking through the tenement 00:02:06.140 --> 00:02:08.979 districts observing kids, you know, playing stickball 00:02:08.979 --> 00:02:11.180 in the street or causing mischief. No, he's looking 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:13.240 at working children. And not just working a few 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:15.879 hours a week for pocket money either. We're talking 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:18.699 about carrying the kind of physical and psychological 00:02:18.699 --> 00:02:22.419 burdens that would absolutely break most modern 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:25.020 adults. He saw a system that was just consuming 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:27.659 its youngest and most vulnerable members. And 00:02:27.659 --> 00:02:30.120 his purpose with this second book was to sound 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:32.849 the alarm. He wanted to force the creation of 00:02:32.849 --> 00:02:35.270 better conditions for these kids. So before we 00:02:35.270 --> 00:02:37.449 delve into the specifics of this one photograph, 00:02:37.789 --> 00:02:40.169 I want to ask you, the listener, to just pause 00:02:40.169 --> 00:02:42.830 for a second. Try to place yourself in that 1890s 00:02:42.830 --> 00:02:45.129 mindset. Yeah, think back to when you were nine 00:02:45.129 --> 00:02:47.830 years old. Picture what your days looked like. 00:02:48.069 --> 00:02:50.789 And now strip away the schoolyard. The playtime. 00:02:50.949 --> 00:02:53.009 The inherent freedom and safety of childhood. 00:02:53.210 --> 00:02:55.949 Replace that with the full unyielding weight 00:02:55.949 --> 00:02:58.889 of adult survival responsibilities. Just imagine 00:02:58.889 --> 00:03:02.210 the physical toll of manual labor and the mental 00:03:02.210 --> 00:03:05.729 toll of extreme poverty day in and day out within 00:03:05.729 --> 00:03:08.389 the stifling walls of a tenement building. That 00:03:08.389 --> 00:03:11.289 is the reality we are stepping into. It's a staggering 00:03:11.289 --> 00:03:14.370 reality to try and map onto a child. And that 00:03:14.370 --> 00:03:16.789 brings us right to the subject of our deep dive 00:03:16.789 --> 00:03:19.490 today. Let's meet little Katie, the girl behind 00:03:19.490 --> 00:03:23.289 the lens. So the full formal title of this photograph 00:03:23.289 --> 00:03:26.810 gives us our first major clues about her life. 00:03:33.979 --> 00:03:37.419 That title is incredibly striking. It is, because 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:40.020 it immediately centers her voice. Right, in an 00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:43.060 era where the poor were often treated as silent, 00:03:43.419 --> 00:03:45.840 nameless subjects. Subjects to be studied or 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:48.379 pitied. The title doesn't just describe her from 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:50.860 an outsider's perspective. It quotes her directly. 00:03:51.379 --> 00:03:54.099 Eye scrubs. It's an active, definitive statement 00:03:54.099 --> 00:03:57.080 of identity. It really is. And we know some highly 00:03:57.080 --> 00:03:59.280 specific details about her living situation at 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:01.439 the time this photo was taken. Katie is nine 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:03.719 years old. She lives on West 49th Street in New 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:05.960 York City. And she resides on the top floor of 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:07.919 a tenement building. And to understand the gravity 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:09.900 of that, we really have to look at her family 00:04:09.900 --> 00:04:12.580 dynamics. Which were complex and incredibly demanding. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:15.500 Yeah, she lived with her father, her stepmother, 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:18.639 an older sister, and two brothers. And the defining 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:20.800 characteristic of this household is that all 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:23.060 of her siblings worked. The older sister and 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:25.720 both brothers were part of the labor force. To 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:28.579 fully grasp what that means, we have to visualize 00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:31.100 that top floor tenement. Oh, those buildings 00:04:31.100 --> 00:04:33.740 were notoriously brutal environments. They were 00:04:33.740 --> 00:04:36.339 narrow, typically five to six stories high. With 00:04:36.339 --> 00:04:38.819 minimal ventilation. Very little natural light. 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:42.019 Yeah. And often no indoor plumbing beyond a single 00:04:42.019 --> 00:04:44.800 cold water tap in the hallway. If that. Right. 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.519 Now put a family of six or seven people into 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:50.139 a few tiny cramped rooms in that environment. 00:04:50.259 --> 00:04:52.819 The fact that all the older siblings are working 00:04:52.819 --> 00:04:55.420 tells us that the economic margins of this family 00:04:55.420 --> 00:04:58.819 are razor thin. The combined wages of the father 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.339 The older sister and the two brothers are still 00:05:01.339 --> 00:05:03.160 barely enough to keep a roof over their heads. 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:06.740 And food on the table. Every single capable hand 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:09.480 has to generate value. Which brings us to Katie's 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:12.120 specific value generation. Captured right in 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:15.259 that interaction with Reese, he meets her, he 00:05:15.259 --> 00:05:17.980 asks her what her work is, and her answer is 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:21.639 that blunt, unadorned phrase. Icer grubs. But 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:24.480 it's Reese's observation of her that really stands 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:26.759 out to me. He notes that her look guaranteed 00:05:26.759 --> 00:05:29.399 that what she scrubbed came out clean. What's 00:05:29.399 --> 00:05:31.379 fascinating here is that Reese is looking at 00:05:31.379 --> 00:05:34.040 a nine -year -old child, but he's evaluating 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:36.220 her with the metrics you'd use for a seasoned 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:38.459 professional. He doesn't see a helpless waif. 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:41.680 No, he sees a highly competent, serious worker. 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:45.120 He describes her in his writings as a sober, 00:05:45.579 --> 00:05:48.399 patient, sturdy little thing. He recognizes a 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:50.680 profound resilience in her demeanor. She isn't 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:53.329 doing a sloppy job just to get by. She takes 00:05:53.329 --> 00:05:55.810 her labor seriously because her survival and 00:05:55.810 --> 00:05:58.129 her family's functioning depends on it. And the 00:05:58.129 --> 00:05:59.990 setting where he meets her adds another layer 00:05:59.990 --> 00:06:02.990 to this. He encounters her at the West 52nd Street 00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:05.550 Industrial School. These industrial schools were 00:06:05.550 --> 00:06:08.110 established specifically for poor children. Often 00:06:08.110 --> 00:06:10.689 run by charitable organizations. So Katie is 00:06:10.689 --> 00:06:13.550 existing at this intense intersection. She's 00:06:13.550 --> 00:06:15.509 attending this school, presumably attempting 00:06:15.509 --> 00:06:18.550 to get some rudimentary education. Or vocational 00:06:18.550 --> 00:06:21.420 training. Maybe getting a hot meal. Yeah. But 00:06:21.420 --> 00:06:24.060 her core identity, the way she introduces herself 00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:27.160 to a stranger, exactly, is defined entirely by 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:29.779 her manual labor. It highlights a tragic dichotomy. 00:06:29.959 --> 00:06:32.660 The school represents a desperate grasp of childhood, 00:06:33.100 --> 00:06:35.660 a place for learning. But the reality of her 00:06:35.660 --> 00:06:38.839 life outside those walls overrides it. She isn't 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:41.300 Katie the student. She is Katie who scrubs. I 00:06:41.300 --> 00:06:43.839 really want to dwell on the sheer physical toll 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:45.600 of that existence. We're talking about a nine 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:48.180 year old girl. Her day consists of scrubbing 00:06:48.180 --> 00:06:50.649 floors. Getting down on her hands and knees with 00:06:50.649 --> 00:06:53.269 harsh lye soap. Hauling heavy wooden buckets 00:06:53.269 --> 00:06:56.129 of dirty water. Ringing out rags until her hands 00:06:56.129 --> 00:06:59.209 are raw. And then, at the end of that exhausting, 00:06:59.670 --> 00:07:02.170 bone -deep manual labor. She has to walk back 00:07:02.170 --> 00:07:05.310 to West 49th Street. And physically climb the 00:07:05.310 --> 00:07:08.389 dark, narrow stairs all the way to the top floor 00:07:08.389 --> 00:07:10.949 of her tenement. The physical exhaustion alone 00:07:10.949 --> 00:07:13.730 is difficult to comprehend for a child whose 00:07:13.730 --> 00:07:16.769 bones are still growing. But Reese captures something 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:19.240 even darker. He writes about the psychological 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:21.939 weight. Describing that dull life wearing on 00:07:21.939 --> 00:07:25.180 her day by day. It's the sheer grinding monotony 00:07:25.180 --> 00:07:27.500 of it all. There is no weekend to look forward 00:07:27.500 --> 00:07:31.100 to. No summer vacation. No upward mobility. It 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:34.839 is a relentless unending cycle of poverty and 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:37.160 physical exertion. A hard life that stretches 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:40.339 out endlessly before her, slowly eroding the 00:07:40.339 --> 00:07:43.259 spark of youth. This is a sobering thought. It 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:46.139 really is. If you picture a nine -year -old in 00:07:46.139 --> 00:07:50.240 your life right now. A daughter, a niece, a neighbor. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:52.980 And you superimpose Katie's daily routine onto 00:07:52.980 --> 00:07:55.939 them. The contrast is jarring. Waking up in a 00:07:55.939 --> 00:07:58.180 suffocatingly crowded tenement room. Heading 00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:00.420 out to scrub floors or attend a charity school. 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:03.120 trudging home to climb five flights of stairs 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:05.860 and carrying the sober patient demeanor of a 00:08:05.860 --> 00:08:09.180 sturdy hardened worker. It strips away any romanticized 00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:11.439 notions of the past and exposes the incredibly 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:14.439 harsh reality of 1890s poverty. It certainly 00:08:14.439 --> 00:08:16.680 does. And what makes it even more devastating 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:18.920 is understanding that Katie's situation was not 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:21.660 an isolated incident. She was not a unique tragedy 00:08:21.660 --> 00:08:24.579 that Reese happened to stumble upon. No, she 00:08:24.579 --> 00:08:27.139 belonged to a broader recognized demographic 00:08:27.139 --> 00:08:29.959 within the slums that Reese identified and categorized. 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:32.919 He referred to girls in Katie's specific situation 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:36.419 as little mothers. The little mothers. It's a 00:08:36.419 --> 00:08:39.240 term that is simultaneously affectionate and 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:42.500 deeply disturbing. Reese used this phrase for 00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:45.179 the girls in his pictures because despite their 00:08:45.179 --> 00:08:48.019 young age, they had inherited responsibilities 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:51.139 that were entirely adult in nature. We see exactly 00:08:51.139 --> 00:08:53.279 what those responsibilities looked like in Katie's 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:56.570 life. Her specific domestic burden On top of 00:08:56.570 --> 00:08:58.789 everything else, was keeping house for her older 00:08:58.789 --> 00:09:01.429 sister and her two brothers. Imagine the logistics 00:09:01.429 --> 00:09:03.750 of that. We've established that the older siblings 00:09:03.750 --> 00:09:06.070 are out working wage earning jobs to pay the 00:09:06.070 --> 00:09:08.549 rent. That leaves nine year old Katie. living 00:09:08.549 --> 00:09:11.370 on the top floor as the primary caretaker of 00:09:11.370 --> 00:09:14.470 the domestic space. Keeping house in an 1890s 00:09:14.470 --> 00:09:17.250 tenement meant hauling fresh water up five flights 00:09:17.250 --> 00:09:19.450 of stairs for drinking and cooking. It meant 00:09:19.450 --> 00:09:21.970 hauling the wastewater back down. It meant managing 00:09:21.970 --> 00:09:24.629 the coal stove. Preparing whatever meager meals 00:09:24.629 --> 00:09:27.149 they could afford. Mending clothes and keeping 00:09:27.149 --> 00:09:29.370 the suffocating soot and grime of the city at 00:09:29.370 --> 00:09:31.710 bay. She is responsible for the domestic survival 00:09:31.710 --> 00:09:35.080 of three older working siblings. And Reese has 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:38.639 this incredibly poignant, almost poetic quote 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:41.779 summarizing her situation. He says, very early, 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:45.120 the cross of her sex had been laid upon the little 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:47.879 shoulders that bore it so stoutly. If we connect 00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:50.980 this to the bigger picture, that phrase, the 00:09:50.980 --> 00:09:53.620 cross of her sex, is essential to understanding 00:09:53.620 --> 00:09:56.000 the social dynamics of the era. What does that 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.200 mean in the context of the 1890s slums? It implies 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:02.669 that on top of the crushing indiscriminate burdens 00:10:02.669 --> 00:10:05.629 of extreme poverty. Female children faced an 00:10:05.629 --> 00:10:07.990 entirely separate gendered burden. The boys in 00:10:07.990 --> 00:10:10.190 the family were forced into wage labor, which 00:10:10.190 --> 00:10:12.389 is horrific in its own right. But the female 00:10:12.389 --> 00:10:14.690 children, the little mothers, were saddled with 00:10:14.690 --> 00:10:17.169 domestic management. They were expected to be 00:10:17.169 --> 00:10:19.850 the glue holding the household together. Performing 00:10:19.850 --> 00:10:22.409 invisible unpaid labor that was essential for 00:10:22.409 --> 00:10:24.730 the wage earners to function. It creates this 00:10:24.730 --> 00:10:27.669 intense duality in her existence. She is a child. 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:30.440 Yet she is functioning as the de facto matriarch 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:32.980 of a working household. The poverty forces everyone 00:10:32.980 --> 00:10:35.220 in the family to sacrifice their comfort. But 00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:37.759 the gender dynamics of the 19th century dictate 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:40.460 exactly how that sacrifice is extracted. The 00:10:40.460 --> 00:10:42.779 boys sell their labor to the factories or the 00:10:42.779 --> 00:10:45.720 streets. The girls sacrifice their childhood. 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:48.259 to the maintenance of the home. And they bore 00:10:48.259 --> 00:10:51.440 it, as Reese noted, stoutly. There was no room 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:54.019 for complaint. No alternative safety net to catch 00:10:54.019 --> 00:10:56.220 them if they failed. The survival of the family 00:10:56.220 --> 00:10:59.539 unit depended on a nine -year -old girl successfully 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:02.379 managing the exhausting logistics of a tenement 00:11:02.379 --> 00:11:05.039 household. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:11:05.379 --> 00:11:08.419 though, when you realize that because she wasn't 00:11:08.419 --> 00:11:11.299 an anomaly, because there were thousands of little 00:11:11.299 --> 00:11:13.519 mothers throughout the Lower East Side in Hell's 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:16.610 Kitchen, carrying this specific burden. Reese 00:11:16.610 --> 00:11:19.649 had to figure out how to accurately capture the 00:11:19.649 --> 00:11:22.840 reality and recognizing the quiet dignity. That 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:26.220 sturdy sober reality of these girls seems to 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:29.179 have forced a massive shift in Reese's own professional 00:11:29.179 --> 00:11:32.480 methodology. It was a monumental shift. And to 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:34.899 understand the evolution of Reese as a reformer, 00:11:34.899 --> 00:11:37.059 we have to look closely at the ethics of the 00:11:37.059 --> 00:11:40.139 lens. There is a stark documented contrast between 00:11:40.139 --> 00:11:42.659 how Reese operated when he published How the 00:11:42.659 --> 00:11:45.460 Other Half Lives in 1890 versus how he operated 00:11:45.460 --> 00:11:47.580 just two years later with The Children of the 00:11:47.580 --> 00:11:50.840 Poor. Let's break down that contrast. In his 00:11:50.840 --> 00:11:54.299 earlier work, His methods were famously aggressive. 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:58.139 He photographed people very often, entirely without 00:11:58.139 --> 00:12:00.860 their permission. That is putting it mildly. 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:04.200 Reece's early methods were essentially photographic 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:06.039 ambushes. We have to remember the technology 00:12:06.039 --> 00:12:09.399 of the time. Photography in the dark, cramped 00:12:09.399 --> 00:12:12.019 interiors of the tenements required artificial 00:12:12.019 --> 00:12:15.019 light. This was the era of explosive magnesium 00:12:15.019 --> 00:12:18.240 flash powder. Rees often accompanied by police 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:20.820 or health inspectors would literally burst into 00:12:20.820 --> 00:12:22.799 a tenement room or a cellar dive in the middle 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:25.610 of the night. He'd set up his bulky camera equipment 00:12:25.610 --> 00:12:28.169 in the pitch black. Ignite this flash powder, 00:12:28.429 --> 00:12:30.669 which created a blinding explosion of light. 00:12:30.830 --> 00:12:34.029 A loud bang. And a cloud of acrid smoke. He'd 00:12:34.029 --> 00:12:36.590 capture the terrified, disoriented reactions 00:12:36.590 --> 00:12:39.409 of the sleeping inhabitants. And then flee before 00:12:39.409 --> 00:12:41.149 they could fully realize what had happened. It 00:12:41.149 --> 00:12:43.190 sounds like a home invasion. He was using the 00:12:43.190 --> 00:12:45.250 camera as an offensive weapon to capture the 00:12:45.250 --> 00:12:48.600 raw, unfiltered squalor. He wanted to shock middle 00:12:48.600 --> 00:12:51.059 -class society, and he used shock tactics on 00:12:51.059 --> 00:12:53.460 the subjects to get those images. But for eye 00:12:53.460 --> 00:12:56.679 scrubs, and for the portraits in this second 00:12:56.679 --> 00:13:00.080 book, he abandons that tactic completely. He 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:02.620 takes the absolute opposite approach. He started 00:13:02.620 --> 00:13:05.039 getting to know the children. and asking them 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:07.340 for permission prior to taking the photograph. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:09.379 This raises an important question about the history 00:13:09.379 --> 00:13:11.740 of social documentary photography, and really, 00:13:11.980 --> 00:13:14.679 the history of journalistic ethics. Why change 00:13:14.679 --> 00:13:18.240 tactics? Why abandon the explosive ambush for 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:21.019 the quiet, negotiated portrait? If we look at 00:13:21.019 --> 00:13:23.860 what he is trying to capture, the dullness and 00:13:23.860 --> 00:13:27.519 harshness of a child's life. That slow, grinding 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:29.960 attrition of the spirit. You cannot capture that 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:31.940 with a surprise explosion in the middle of the 00:13:31.940 --> 00:13:34.539 night. A flash powder ambush. captures acute 00:13:34.539 --> 00:13:37.639 terror and confusion. But to capture the profound, 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:40.960 chronic exhaustion of a little mother, you need 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:42.779 her to sit still. You need to look her in the 00:13:42.779 --> 00:13:45.480 eye. You need a baseline level of trust and interaction. 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:48.580 You can't capture a sober patient demeanor if 00:13:48.580 --> 00:13:50.720 you are startling someone out of their sleep. 00:13:51.059 --> 00:13:53.620 You have to ask. And we know exactly how Katie 00:13:53.620 --> 00:13:56.259 reacted when he asked. Reece states that when 00:13:56.259 --> 00:13:58.279 she was asked to take the photograph at the school, 00:13:58.460 --> 00:14:01.080 she accepted it without questioning or smiling. 00:14:01.370 --> 00:14:03.610 The absence of a smile in this photograph is 00:14:03.610 --> 00:14:06.549 the absolute critical element. It is the defining 00:14:06.549 --> 00:14:08.649 feature of the portrait. It demonstrates her 00:14:08.649 --> 00:14:10.870 maturity far more effectively than her physical 00:14:10.870 --> 00:14:13.210 stature. She looks incredibly mature for her 00:14:13.210 --> 00:14:16.830 age, and her indifferent look is the visual manifestation 00:14:16.830 --> 00:14:19.860 of the dullness and harshness of her life. If 00:14:19.860 --> 00:14:23.100 you picture the scene, it is incredibly powerful. 00:14:23.240 --> 00:14:26.419 You have Jacob Brees, a Danish -American reformer, 00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:30.059 setting up this large, cumbersome 1890s camera 00:14:30.059 --> 00:14:33.240 on a wooden tripod. He's ducking under a dark 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:35.919 cloth to focus the lens. And he asks this nine 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:38.539 -year -old girl, who has spent her morning scrubbing 00:14:38.539 --> 00:14:41.179 floors, for permission to take her picture. She 00:14:41.179 --> 00:14:43.159 doesn't ask him why he wants it. She doesn't 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:45.279 primp or try to perform for the camera. She just 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:47.620 stands there and gives him the indifferent, deadly, 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:50.940 serious look. It is a level of unvarnished brutal 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:53.059 truth that you almost never see in portraiture 00:14:53.059 --> 00:14:56.039 from that era. It is a foundational moment. Think 00:14:56.039 --> 00:14:58.500 about modern photojournalism. Think about the 00:14:58.500 --> 00:15:01.240 intense ongoing debates we have today regarding 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:03.679 the ethics of photographing vulnerable subjects. 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:06.980 The concept of informed consent. The power dynamic 00:15:06.980 --> 00:15:09.299 between the person behind the lens and the person 00:15:09.299 --> 00:15:11.679 in front of it. We can trace the roots of those 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:14.779 complex ethical debates right back to this quiet 00:15:14.779 --> 00:15:18.379 interaction in 1890. When does a subject transition 00:15:18.379 --> 00:15:21.620 from being a mere prop used to illustrate poverty 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:24.779 to being an active, consenting participant in 00:15:24.779 --> 00:15:27.500 their own historical documentation? Katie, by 00:15:27.500 --> 00:15:29.419 accepting the photograph without questioning 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:32.659 or smiling, claims her space in that process. 00:15:32.940 --> 00:15:36.159 She refuses to perform. She simply exists in 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:38.659 her reality. That refusal to perform is what 00:15:38.659 --> 00:15:41.340 gives the image its immense power. And it ties 00:15:41.340 --> 00:15:43.399 directly into what Reese was actually trying 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:45.759 to achieve. Let's talk about the mission of muckraking 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:48.120 journalism. Reese's ultimate goal for the children 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:50.559 of the poor was explicit. He wanted to alert 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:53.279 people to the crisis. To force the creation of 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:55.100 better conditions for the children of the poorer 00:15:55.100 --> 00:15:58.299 classes. To understand how he planned to do that, 00:15:58.679 --> 00:16:00.700 we need to define the fields he was operating 00:16:00.700 --> 00:16:03.340 in. Reese's work is categorized as muckraking 00:16:03.340 --> 00:16:06.179 journalism and social documentary photography. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:09.019 It is crucial to understand that these were not 00:16:09.019 --> 00:16:11.360 artistic endeavors meant for quiet contemplation 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:14.379 in a gallery. These were targeted, aggressive 00:16:14.379 --> 00:16:17.019 campaigns for social change. Muckraking was about 00:16:17.340 --> 00:16:20.000 digging up the dirt, exposing the corruption, 00:16:20.580 --> 00:16:22.919 the institutional failures, and the hidden suffering 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:25.419 of society, and throwing it directly into the 00:16:25.419 --> 00:16:28.720 faces of the comfortable classes. This single 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:31.340 black and white photograph of Katie wasn't taken 00:16:31.340 --> 00:16:33.740 to be admired for its composition or its lighting. 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:36.840 It was a tool. It was a lever designed to exert 00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:39.639 political and social pressure. Reese was using 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:42.919 Katie's image and the stark reality of her story. 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:45.480 to shock the conscience of the public and the 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:48.580 policymakers. And he did it by being hyper -specific. 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:50.820 In his writings, he didn't just talk about the 00:16:50.820 --> 00:16:53.940 slums as some vague, abstract concept. He listed 00:16:53.940 --> 00:16:56.480 specific addresses. He noted that Kitty lived 00:16:56.480 --> 00:16:58.840 on West 49th Street and went to school on West 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:01.779 52nd Street. He is grounding the issue geographically. 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:04.099 For a wealthy New Yorker reading his book in 00:17:04.099 --> 00:17:06.680 their comfortable uptown brownstone in 1892, 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:09.539 this was a revelation. The suffering wasn't happening 00:17:09.539 --> 00:17:12.279 in some distant quarantine zone. It was happening 00:17:12.279 --> 00:17:14.700 right down the street. It forced the reader to 00:17:14.700 --> 00:17:17.680 confront the immediate physical proximity of 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:20.599 this extreme poverty. So what does this all mean? 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:23.660 If the goal is to generate public outrage and 00:17:23.660 --> 00:17:26.160 demand sweeping legislative reform for child 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:29.880 welfare, why use this specific image? If you 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:32.119 are a muckraker trying to pull at the heartstrings 00:17:32.119 --> 00:17:35.160 of Victorian society, you might assume that a 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:38.099 photo of a child openly weeping or looking visibly 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:40.799 terrified and frail would be the most effective 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:44.309 propaganda. But Reese chose Katie. He chose the 00:17:44.309 --> 00:17:46.730 indifferent look. Because the tragic normalization 00:17:46.730 --> 00:17:49.490 of her suffering is a far more devastating indictment 00:17:49.490 --> 00:17:52.630 of society than a moment of panic. A crying child 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:55.490 is a child reacting to an acute, immediate crisis. 00:17:55.670 --> 00:17:59.690 But a child who is sober, patient, sturdy. A 00:17:59.690 --> 00:18:01.509 child who accepts a stranger's camera without 00:18:01.509 --> 00:18:04.299 a single trace of a smile. Hoop casually states 00:18:04.299 --> 00:18:07.160 ice grubs as her entire identity. That is a child 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:10.019 whose entire existence has been subsumed by structural 00:18:10.019 --> 00:18:12.160 hardship. It shows that the system hasn't just 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:14.579 hurt her, it has fundamentally altered her nature. 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:17.720 Precisely. The dullness of her life wearing on 00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:21.019 her day by day is the true muckraking hook. It 00:18:21.019 --> 00:18:23.140 communicates to the comfortable classes that 00:18:23.140 --> 00:18:26.119 the economic system they benefit from requires 00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:29.460 the systemic, daily crushing of a nine -year 00:18:29.460 --> 00:18:32.109 -old girl spirit. It shows that her childhood 00:18:32.109 --> 00:18:35.150 hasn't just been interrupted, it has been entirely 00:18:35.150 --> 00:18:38.529 stolen. And that stolen childhood is a much harder 00:18:38.529 --> 00:18:41.829 reality for society to ignore or excuse. It is 00:18:41.829 --> 00:18:44.670 a brilliant, if heartbreaking, editorial choice. 00:18:44.990 --> 00:18:48.109 And that powerful, unvarnished message has resonated 00:18:48.109 --> 00:18:51.210 far beyond the pages of an 1892 reform book. 00:18:51.410 --> 00:18:53.569 Let's look at the institutional legacy of ice 00:18:53.569 --> 00:18:55.970 grubs. The journey of this specific photograph 00:18:55.970 --> 00:18:58.250 over the last century is a fascinating study 00:18:58.250 --> 00:19:01.390 in how we value historical documentation. Today, 00:19:01.789 --> 00:19:03.349 original prints of this photograph are held in 00:19:03.349 --> 00:19:05.410 some of the most prestigious cultural institutions 00:19:05.410 --> 00:19:07.549 in the world. They are housed at the Museum of 00:19:07.549 --> 00:19:09.690 the City of New York, the Museum of Modern Art, 00:19:09.819 --> 00:19:12.039 MoMA in New York. And at the International Center 00:19:12.039 --> 00:19:14.799 of Photography, also in New York? MoMA, the International 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:16.920 Center of Photography. These are the absolute 00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:19.140 pinnacles of institutional prestige and fine 00:19:19.140 --> 00:19:21.640 art. And it wasn't just this one photo. Ries 00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:23.980 was incredibly prolific, and many of his works 00:19:23.980 --> 00:19:27.150 from this era shared this hallowed status. Think 00:19:27.150 --> 00:19:30.750 about images like Bandits Roost from 1888, which 00:19:30.750 --> 00:19:33.809 shows the menacing, shadowy alleyways of Mulberry 00:19:33.809 --> 00:19:36.150 Bend. Or Lodgers and Baird Street Tenement from 00:19:36.150 --> 00:19:39.490 1889, showing a room packed floor to ceiling 00:19:39.490 --> 00:19:42.170 with sleeping men. He captured Sabbath Eve in 00:19:42.170 --> 00:19:44.410 a coal cellar. The street Arabs showing homeless 00:19:44.410 --> 00:19:47.029 children sleeping over subway grates. And The 00:19:47.029 --> 00:19:50.869 Trench in Potter's Field around 1890. He extensively 00:19:50.869 --> 00:19:53.670 documented the absolute bottom of the social 00:19:53.670 --> 00:19:56.599 ladder. What does it mean for a photograph like 00:19:56.599 --> 00:19:59.220 Ice Grubs, an image originally intended as a 00:19:59.220 --> 00:20:01.940 desperate utilitarian plea for immediate child 00:20:01.940 --> 00:20:04.440 welfare reform, printed on the cheap paper of 00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:07.039 a political pamphlet, to now be preserved under 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:09.799 climate controlled glass in fine art institutions? 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.519 It is a profound transition. It has evolved from 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:14.940 a disposable muck raking tool meant to alert 00:20:14.940 --> 00:20:18.299 the public in 1892 into being celebrated as a 00:20:18.299 --> 00:20:20.759 masterpiece of 1890s black and white photography. 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:23.779 It speaks to the enduring transcendent power 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:26.359 of the image itself. The artistic merit of the 00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:28.599 composition. The stark unforgiving lighting. 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:32.559 The raw, undeniable honesty of Katie's gaze. 00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:36.059 These visual elements are so powerful that they 00:20:36.059 --> 00:20:39.160 transcend the original, immediate political purpose. 00:20:39.539 --> 00:20:41.980 Even though the specific tenements are long gone, 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:44.880 the artistic power of the image continues to 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:47.460 command our attention, forcing us to remember 00:20:47.460 --> 00:20:50.930 that history. I am just... marveling at the trajectory 00:20:50.930 --> 00:20:53.170 of little Katie. Think about it. This nine -year 00:20:53.170 --> 00:20:55.789 -old girl who just wanted to keep her top floor 00:20:55.789 --> 00:20:58.809 tenement clean for her siblings, who hauled dirty 00:20:58.809 --> 00:21:01.630 water up five flights of stairs, who just wanted 00:21:01.630 --> 00:21:04.569 to get through the exhausting day, is now immortalized 00:21:04.569 --> 00:21:07.470 alongside the greatest masterworks of human history. 00:21:07.769 --> 00:21:10.750 Her quiet, unsmiling endurance is preserved forever 00:21:10.750 --> 00:21:13.430 in the halls of MoMA. It is the ultimate testament 00:21:13.430 --> 00:21:16.049 to the power of documentation. By acknowledging 00:21:16.049 --> 00:21:18.750 someone's daily reality by truly stopping to 00:21:18.750 --> 00:21:21.410 see them as Jacob Rees stopped to see Katie. 00:21:21.670 --> 00:21:23.750 Asking for her consent rather than ambushing 00:21:23.750 --> 00:21:26.549 her. You can create ripples through history that 00:21:26.549 --> 00:21:29.430 outlast everyone involved. Her individual hardship 00:21:29.430 --> 00:21:32.170 was translated into a universal symbol of endurance. 00:21:32.609 --> 00:21:35.250 Let's briefly recap the incredible journey we 00:21:35.250 --> 00:21:37.789 have taken on this deep dive. We started on the 00:21:37.789 --> 00:21:40.710 grueling top floor of a tenement on West 49th 00:21:40.710 --> 00:21:43.460 Street. trying to comprehend the heavy gendered 00:21:43.460 --> 00:21:45.420 burden placed on the shoulders of the little 00:21:45.420 --> 00:21:48.200 mothers. We watched as Jacob Rees, confronted 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:51.359 with Katie's quiet dignity, evolved his methods, 00:21:51.619 --> 00:21:54.279 moving away from the violence of ambush photography 00:21:54.279 --> 00:21:57.920 to seeking quiet consent, forever altering the 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:00.220 ethics of the lens. And finally, we followed 00:22:00.220 --> 00:22:02.980 that resulting unvarnished image all the way 00:22:02.980 --> 00:22:05.200 to the hallowed halls of the Museum of Modern 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:08.359 Art. It is a profound reminder of how acknowledging 00:22:08.359 --> 00:22:11.700 a harsh everyday reality can echo through the 00:22:11.700 --> 00:22:14.220 centuries. As we wrap up this exploration, I 00:22:14.220 --> 00:22:16.519 want to leave you, the listener, with a final 00:22:16.519 --> 00:22:18.740 thought to mull over as you go about your week. 00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:21.059 We established that when Katie was approached 00:22:21.059 --> 00:22:24.140 with the camera, she accepted it without questioning 00:22:24.140 --> 00:22:27.059 or smiling. Today, we live in a highly mediated 00:22:27.059 --> 00:22:29.299 world where we are constantly conditioned to 00:22:29.299 --> 00:22:31.960 smile for the camera. We are trained from infancy 00:22:32.109 --> 00:22:35.250 to present an idealized, cheerful, frictionless 00:22:35.250 --> 00:22:38.150 version of ourselves, the exact moment a lens 00:22:38.150 --> 00:22:40.549 is pointed in our direction. We perform for the 00:22:40.549 --> 00:22:43.130 historical record of our own lives. But Katie 00:22:43.130 --> 00:22:46.509 gave Jacob Rees, and by extension, the entirety 00:22:46.509 --> 00:22:49.569 of history, the radical, unvarnished truth of 00:22:49.569 --> 00:22:52.089 her existence. As you capture your own moments 00:22:52.089 --> 00:22:54.349 this week, whether on a smartphone or a digital 00:22:54.349 --> 00:22:56.950 camera, Think about what nuanced realities are 00:22:56.950 --> 00:22:59.650 lost when we instinctively force a smile for 00:22:59.650 --> 00:23:02.170 the sake of presentation. And consider what profound 00:23:02.170 --> 00:23:04.809 historical truth might be gained when we simply 00:23:04.809 --> 00:23:07.509 allow a photograph to capture the unvarnished 00:23:07.509 --> 00:23:10.289 reality of exactly who we are and what we are 00:23:10.289 --> 00:23:11.750 carrying in that given moment.