Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 (Series in Contemporary Photography, 1)

Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 (Series in Contemporary Photography, 1)

By: Wayne F. Miller  

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Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5

One of the first Western photographers to document the destruction of Hiroshima and the survivors of the bombing, Wayne Miller had just returned from his stint as a World War II Navy combat photographer under the direction of Edward Steichen when he received two concurrent Guggenheim fellowships to fund his Chicago project. Taken over a course of three years beginning in 1946, his photographs span city scenes from storefront church services to slaughterhouse workers in the taverns at night to a couple making love. In addition to affording a glimpse into the hopes and hardships shared by a community of migrants who had just made the long journey from the rural South to the urban North, the images collected in Chicago's South Side reflect the enormous variety of human experiences and emotions that occurred at a unique time and place in the American landscape.

A few celebrities appear in these images-Paul Robeson, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington. But mostly we see ordinary people-in clubs and at church, sporting events, parades. Much is on view that is of interest to the student of mid-twentieth-century black Chicago: the neighborhoods Richard Wright's Bigger Thomas traversed in Native Son, the Bronzeville limned in Gwendolyn Brooks's earliest poems, and the street life that inspired the urbanscapes of painter Archibald Motley. The kitchenette apartments that Miller so deftly memorializes are bursting with people of all ages sleeping, dressing, courting, and dreaming. One senses the intimacy between his subjects and the emotions that animate their lives.

Gordon Parks's memoir of poverty and hope in the freezing tenements of the South Side supplements the photographs, while Robert Stepto's essay contextualizes the South Side in the history of postwar Chicago. Chicago's South Sideis a superb testament to the talent of the photographer, to the spirit of the people the images portray, and to the moment in American history these photographs capture.

Publisher: University of California Press

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
SOUTHSIDE OF CHICAGO - SOUTHSIDE OF CHICAGO NEEDS PICTURES OF MARTIN LUTHER KING DR. BACK IN THE YEARS OF (1948-1970S) SOUTHPARK HAS AND ALWAYS IS A BEAUTIFUL STREET. THERE ARE HOMES THAT ARE STILL THERE, BUT ONLY A FEW. I ENJOY THIS BOOK VERRRY MUCH! ALSO WE NEED A BOOK ABOUT THE SOUTH-WEST SIDE OF CHICAGO, IN THE ENGLEWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD FROM 59TH AND RACINE TO 59TH AND ASHLAND. THE BLOCKS BETWEEN THEM LIKE THROOP, ADA, LOOMIS & BISHOP ARE VERY GOOD NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE ENGLEWOOD AREA ON THE SOUTHWEST SIDE OF CHICAGO AND GOOD SCHOOLS.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Excellent book - I highly recommend this book to study the social aspects of 20th century South Side Chicago. The images are fantastic and I use it for historical costume research.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Miller's Chicago, South Side Study - while in France recently at Chalon-sur-Soane I visited their photography museum. They were doing a special exhibit of this work. I was so totally impressed on how Miller could capture these photos while seeming to be invisable to his subjects that I investigated when I returned and discovered that this book was available. I bought TWO; one for myself and one for my daughter who is a serious photographer.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Extraordinary photographic record ... and extraordinary photographs - These striking images of Bronzeville -- "Chicago's Harlem" -- will blow you away. The humanity they portray, in all its beaten-down, lifted-up, heartbreaking reality, makes me wish I knew personally every man and woman depicted herein.

Wayne Miller, a white photographer now well into his 80s, went into the Bronzeville ghetto over a two-year period and made these touching pictures; then they "went into a drawer" for 40 years, until finally the Univ of Calif Press published this book. (The book itself is as well-produced a book of photographs as you are likely to find anywhere.)

My grandfather Nathan Joseph ran the States Theatre at 3507 S. State St., in the heart of Bronzeville, for some 50 years (unfortunately the States is not depicted herein). I myself have written a novel of Bronzeville called "To Love Mercy" (Mid-Atlantic Highlands, ISBN 0-9744785-3-9). A historical Afterword appears at the end of "To Love Mercy;" it is an oral history of Bronzeville, in the voices of a dozen people who lived there in the '40s and '50s. This Afterword is illustrated with seven of Wayne Miller's photos from "Chicago South Side, 1946-1948."

I have given close to a dozen copies of "Chicago South Side" as gifts. I was coming to Amazon to buy two more copies when I saw this opportunity to write a review.

These photos have moved me to tears. Buy this book.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Shocking and Intimate - This book is a treasure. I wish I could find more by this photographer (my searches have come up empty). The photographs take you right inside each scene, and often pack a powerful punch of sadness, joy, intimacy, life. The printing quality is excellent. If the publisher can collect more of his work, I will be the first customer.

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