BLACK MEN AT THE ENTRANCE TO A POOL HALL WHERE THEY HANG AROUND DAILY, LOCATED ON ROOSEVELT ROAD IN THE HEART OF THE GHETTO ON CHICAGO’S WEST SIDE. THE 1970 CENSUS REPORTED 22 TO 29% OF THE AREA'S RESIDENTS WERE BELOW THE POVERTY LEVEL. HELPED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, A LOCAL ORGANIZATION SIGNED AGREEMENTS WITH MAJOR NATIONAL FRANCHISES THAT RESULTED IN $20 MILLION IN JOBS FOR RESIDENTS. IN 1973 THE WEST SIDE HAD NOT YET RECOVERED FROM EARLIER RIOTS AND FIRES

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”.