A BLACK CHILD ON THE REAR PORCH OF A HOUSE IN A VERY LOW INCOME AREA ON CHICAGO’S WEST SIDE. IT IS ONE OF THE MANY BLACK FACES IN THIS PROJECT THAT PORTRAY LIFE IN ALL ITS SEASONS. THE PHOTOS ARE PORTRAITS THAT REFLECT PRIDE, LOVE, BEAUTY, HOPE, STRUGGLE, JOY, HATE FRUSTRATION, DISCONTENT, WORSHIP AND FAITH. IN SHORT, PORTRAITS OF PEOPLE WHO FEEL THEY ARE INDIVIDUALS AND ARE PROUD OF THEIR HERITAGE
Featured on PDR in the collection John H. White’s Photographs of Black Chicago for DOCUMERICA (1973–74)
It’s hard not to read John H. White’s DOCUMERICA series as a love letter to Black Chicago. Whether capturing protesters or checkers players, concerts or chores, White’s work feels animated by a wonder and curiosity for the great breadth of stories and characters he encountered while exploring his adopted home city — “life”, as he put it in the captions to several of his images, “in all its seasons”.