Photographs honor moments in time.
But time moves away from everyone, like a train leaving a crowded station.
“We want to preserve and shine a spotlight on the work of some of the best of Chicago’s photographer community, who are still working with almost no recognition” said long-time Chicago photographer Paul Natkin, who is coordinating the Chicago Photography Collection with Lionel Rabb of the Ed Paschke Art Center Organization (EPAC) in Chicago.
Photography has been an unrepresented art form in Chicago. Many photographers living and dead have created great work in Chicago with little representation to the public. They are a quiet and often sensitive tribe. They cherish the dignity of mankind. They are curious about the way things reveal themselves. Photographers wonder what makes the Earth move.
A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) is moving into the photography landscape. In 2023 Bloomsbury Publishing admitted that the British edition of Sarah J. Mass’s “House of Earth and Blood” inadvertently used an A.I. generated image on the cover. According to the New York Times, fans “reacted with an uproar.”
The worst day of my 30 years at the Chicago Sun-Times happened on May 30, 2013 when the newspaper laid off its entire staff of 28 full-time photographers. The casualties included Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John H. White, who along with being a tremendous artist, was also a warm connector with communities. Writers like myself were then instructed to take pictures with our phones. Management claimed the move was to shift toward more online video, which has never materialized. Even high-level editors in the nation’s third-biggest city disrespected the photographer’s craft. White often said, “Life is an open book. Photography preserves its pages.”
Yet, so many Chicago photographers continue to shoot in the dark. “The work is buried,” Natkin said. “Agencies should be hiring these people to be photographing for advertising, to do stories for magazines. Most of these people are still vital. I’ll shoot five nights a week if someone hires me. I’ll be 72 at the end of this year (2023). When I turned 70 it was like somebody flipped a switch and I started getting people regularly saying, ‘What’s going to happen to your stuff when you die?’
The Chicago Photography Archive plans to archive and scan the best work of dozens of Chicago photographers. There will be exhibits at the Paschke Center, traveling shows, books, and catalogs. Recognition awaits.
Finally, the moments in our time will become timeless.
By Dave Hoekstra