A mother reacts as she pleads with police to allow her daughter to pass a checkpoint for cancer treatment after she arrived from Hubei province at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge in Jiujiang, China, February 1, 2020. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Models wait backstage ahead of the Eugenia Kim Spring/Summer 2018 fashion show during New York Fashion Week in New York, U.S., September 10, 2017. (Photo by Amr Alfiky/Reuters)

A model has her hair done backstage before the Taoray Wang fashion show during New York Fashion Week in New York, New York, 09 February 2019. New York Fashion Week for designer's autumn and winter lines is being held from 06 to 13 February 2019. (Photo by Peter Foley/EPA/EFE)

Comic Con fans in costume arrive for the 2nd day of the 2016 New York Comic Con at the Jacob Javits Center on October 7, 2016. The four- day event which runs October 6-9 is the largest pop culture event on the East Coast. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

Swimmers in fancy costume take part in the New Year's Day swim at Saundersfoot in Wales, Britain, January 1, 2017. (Photo by Rebecca Naden/Reuters)

New Zealand Paralympic swimmer Cameron Leslie poses for portrait at the Millennium Pool on March 26, 2012 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Johnston/Getty Images)

Students play in their school yard on the first day of the new school term at a primary school in Baghdad, October 18, 2015. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/Reuters)

Drastic inequality is by no means new in New York. Jacob A. Riis was called a muckraker after he chose to spotlight the city’s poverty at the turn of the 20th century by photographing it. Here: Sweatshop in Hester Street, 1889-1890. (Photo by Jacob A. Riis/Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Roger William Riis)