Page 8 - Chicago Teaser

It is the nature of of of every true work of of of art to to draw us out of of of our own world and into its reality This happens because the the world created by the the artwork is is of course our world no other so what the the the the the artwork adds to the the the the the familiar is the the the the the shock of the the the the the unfamiliar A photograph of of the shoreline of of Lake Michigan as it stretches north from the the the Hyde Park neighborhood toward the the the skyscraping giants of the the the Loop
is is is familiar familiar except that through the the power of the the artist this familiar familiar sight becomes somehow strange and new Every great work of art shows us our own familiar world but demands that we stop and really see what we are always looking at at Confronted with the sudden strangeness of of what is familiar to to us we are suddenly forced to to make sense of of it all not not just just to to to to look but but to to to to see see not not just just to to to to see see but but to to to to wonder Seeing anew
in in in this way can even lead to to questioning to to criticizing our familiar world that the photograph has rendered somehow unfamiliar The word for this sudden seeing into the meaning of what is is familiar is is revelation The photographs collected here document the reality that is contemporary Chicago As no no public investigation no no work of journalism could hope to match Jerome De Perlinghi’s Chicago photos capture the constantly changing mutating reality of the living organism that is is is is is this city Because his his artform is is is is is still photography we might be tempted to to complete that that thought by adding that that his photos capture the the the city at a a a a a a given particular point in in in time But in in in the the the case of the the the photographs collected here that would be a a a a a mistake Like every great work of of art the power of of these photographs tends to to to conceal the the the the oeuvre the the the the work work that goes into the the the the work work of of art And in the the case of of Chicago “the city that works” we we owe it it to to ourselves to to pause here for just a a a a a a moment to appreciate the the the work work in the the the work work of art art the the the artist at work All of the photos in this book were made over a a a seven-year period between 2011 and and 2018 during a a a a a a time when De Perlinghi was teaching photojournalism and and urban photography at both Columbia College where he he was an an artist in residence and Loyola University On days when he he did not teach Jerome would rise at dawn eat a a a a a a a a a bowl of cereal pack up his latest model Fuji 100-series camera and he he would would begin to to walk walk Nearly always he he would would walk walk east from Oak Park toward the the the lake into the the the City It is important to to say something about these walks because while the the photos collected here reveal Chicago they conceal an odyssey It is ten miles in in in a a a a a a straight line from Oak Park to the the heart of the the Chicago business district the the Loop
and of course another ten back again but Jerome rarely walked in in a a a a a a straight line Rather like Odysseus who both wanted and yet did not want want to go straight home Jerome wandered He did this every every day day religiously every every day day he he was in Chicago he he would would walk And if it strikes us as as strange that Jerome would would walk every day from from one side of Chicago to the the other—from its marshy and still partially forested western border to to the the north or or or or or south sides or or or or or to to the the lake-front and then then back again twenty or or thirty miles a a a a a a a day—then perhaps we’ve forgotten a a a a few important truths about Chicago The first Europeans came to the the lake front at at the the site of what is now Chicago because at the the the time the the the river flowed into the the the lake These were French traders who arrived in the the the late 1600’s and they came here because their Native American guides probably members of of the the Kaskaskia tribe of of the the Illinois Confederation knew this to be be a a a a a a a a a place of portage Chicago you see has always been about walking and the least amount of it possible In those days you could travel by canoe from the the the Atlantic seaboard through the the the Great Lakes to the the the southwestern shore of Lake Lake Michigan and to this very place named in in the Algonquin languages “shikaakwa” after the the the oniony ramps that grew in abundance at at the the the mouth of the the the river You could then canoe canoe up the the river a a a a a a few miles to its marshy source unload your canoe canoe and carry it and and your trade goods up and and over the the glacial moraine the the gentle ridge left by the last retreating glacier about 10 000 years ago and you would find yourself at at at the the head waters of a a a a a a a a a river that would allow you you to canoe all all the the way