In this article, the post-war institutional interpretation of Jacob A. Riis' photographs is measured against their nineteenth-century capacity for mass media communication. The conventions that today determine the proper meaning and origin of these celebrated photos first emerged with an exhibition held in 1947. The ensuing, and dominant, mode of interpretation is shown here to be fundamentally at odds with the conditions for image use in early mass media communication. This article examines the clash and argues for an alternative mode (...) of interpretation that is capable of accounting for the distinct production of iconic meaning afforded by the media that Riis employed. (shrink)