BLACK BALLOON SALESMAN ON SOUTH SIDE CHICAGO’S 47TH STREET MANY OF THE CITY'S BLACK BUSINESS OWNERS STARTED WITH SMALL OPERATIONS SUCH AS THIS AND GREW BY WORKING HARD. TODAY CHICAGO IS BELIEVED TO BE THE BLACK BUSINESS CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES. BUT BLACKS HAVE A HARDER TIME STAYING IN BUSINESS THAN THEIR WHITE COUNTERPARTS. STATISTICS NOTE THAT 80% OF BLACK BUSINESSES DO NOT SURVIVE TWO YEARS. RACIAL PREJUDICE, LACK OF CAPITAL AND EXPERTISE ARE PARTLY RESPONSIBLE

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”.