SUMMER FUN MEANS COOLING OFF WITH WATER FROM A FIRE HYDRANT AT WOODLAWN COMMUNITY, A LOW INCOME HIGHRISE APARTMENT COMPLEX ON CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE. THESE CHILDREN DON'T GO TO THE CITY BEACHES. COOLING OFF WITH OPEN FIRE HYDRANTS IS A COMMUNITY TRADITION. THE AREA HAS HIGH CRIME AND FIRE RECORDS. FROM 1960 TO 1970 THE PERCENTAGE OF CHICAGO BLACKS WITH AN INCOME OF $7,000 OR MORE JUMPED FROM 26% TO 58%, BUT STILL FELL BEHIND THE GAIN MADE BY WHITES

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”.