Every once in awhile you come across some work that just makes you reevaluate things. Saul Leiter’s book of street photography (titled Early Color) from the mid 20th century was one such book this year that has really stuck with me. He gives a beautiful, unique and impressionistic view of life in New York and Paris, which, yea for street photography I know is not breaking any new ground, but his pictures aren’t like anyone elses. Most importantly – to me – is that they’re not aggressive. I love street photography and I love practicing it but people who use aggressive methods and consequently come up with aggressive and confrontational imagery doesn’t really interest me. Saul had a stable career as a fashion and commercial photographer, but the stuff in his book shows he’s not bound by anything but his own whims. This book has been one of the photographic motivators (others not being photographic in nature) for me to get out and make pictures in Chicago more, and I keep coming back to it. Unfortunately, it’s tough to find many of his pictures on the ole’ www, so a trip to library (if they even have it…) or bn/amazon.com might be in order.

For the most part I like keeping words to a minimum here, but this summer has been so busy and drastically different (in great ways) than the past few months that I just feel the need to recap. From pretty much mid-June through, well last weekend I scarcely had a day off. I was teaching a high school photography class to kids mostly from Pilsen through Columbia College. That was every day during the week, plus some field trips and a week in downstate Ill. for a college experience. In addition to that, I was at 4 weddings making pictures for good people I knew, mostly from my high school days, was doing other freelance work and even started a new adjunct position at another local art college. I ran two mud filled races (one of them with my sister) that both included ridiculous obstacles, one with mountain biking. (Let me just say that it feels pretty good to place 3rd in your age group when you are competing against people who take their mountain biking very seriously with $1000 + bikes  and fancy outfits and you are riding a 1985 neon green Giant because it’s the only thing in the family garage that you and your sister can fit on, and it still seems to change gears when it’s supposed to…sometimes). I’m really happy that since last year I’ve adopted running in these weird things, I can just throw them in the wash instead of in the garbage after a mud adventure.

One of the grant proposals I’ve been working on as of late prompts me to consider my future plans, what I would do when the proposed granted project has run its course. It’s a weird thing to think and to answer this way, but I would do just what I am doing now. There’s room for improvement and adjustment in each area of course, but in general it’s strange to think that I’m actually doing what I want to be doing. That in and of itself is worth any amount of work from my perspective.

Ah, and the above picture is my hotel room in Galena, Ill. where I was mostly working but got time for one quick run up a trail, through the woods to a bench at the top of a hill with a nice view of the Mississippi on a hazy, cloudy summer day.

ok, so back to the pictures for the next post.

Near Jackson/Wabash

Emergence.

I’m a bit backed up with my processing/scanning at the moment as the month of July hardly afforded me time to breathe, but I’m starting to catch up now and some more street work should be coming. I’m also really excited for autumn to come and for the mood and the light of the city to start to shift a little bit. Most days I’ve been downtown have been sunny and beating on the concrete hot, which is great, but that’s not the only way this city feels and I don’t want it to be the only way the street work looks.

Thanks, Mr. Hiller.