GHETTO STREET SCENE IN CHICAGO ON THE SOUTH SIDE. THE CITY CENSUS FIGURES SHOW A SIGNIFICANT GAP IN ECONOMIC SECURITY BETWEEN BLACKS AND WHITES. OF FAMILIES EARNING $10,000 TO $25,000 IN 1970, 35% WERE BLACK AND 60% WHITE. OF FAMILIES EARNING LESS THAN $8,000 SOME 50% WERE BLACK AND 21% WHITE. IN 1970 MEDIAN BLACK INCOME IN CHICAGO WAS 65% THAT OF WHITE FAMILIES, AN IMPROVEMENT OF 5% IN 20 YEARS, BUT AN ACTUAL WIDENING OF THE DOLLAR GAP

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”.