EMPTY HOUSING IN THE GHETTO ON CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE STRUCTURES SUCH AS THIS HAVE BEEN SYSTEMATICALLY VACATED AS A RESULT OF FIRES, VANDALISM OR FAILURE BY OWNERS TO PROVIDE BASIC TENANT SERVICES. THEN THE VACATED BUILDINGS, OFTEN SUBSTANTIALLY SALVAGEABLE, ARE RAZED AND REPLACED WITH HIGHRISE APARTMENTS WHICH APPEAL TO FEW MEMBERS OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY AND ALMOST NONE OF THE AREA'S PREVIOUS RESIDENTS
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”.
Also appearing in the collection…
“Empty housing in the ghetto on Chicago’s South Side structures such as this have...”
Artist
Date
1973–4
From
Documerica
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