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Exiled: Forgotten Faces of Chicago's Uptown
Photographs by Shirley O'Rourke
March 12 - April 28, 2000
Mon - Fri: 10:00 am-7:00 pm;
Sat 10:00 am -1:00 pm
& 2:00 pm-5:00 pm
Sunday: Closed.

James M. Hunt Gallery
Jane Addams Center/ Hull House
3212 North Broadway
Chicago, Illinois 60657
Telephone: 773/ 549-1631 x512

Exile is not so much a condition of geographic place as of societal situation. The old Soviet Union had its 'internal exiles': those who would not, or could not be made to fit into the recognized conformities. For decades in Chicago, the Uptown neighborhood was known as a catchall for those who fell between the cracks in society; a refuge for those who opted out or were pushed out of elsewhere; an urban Ellis Island for newcomers; and a home, a 'free-zone,' for many who chose to mix on their own terms. Development, 'gentrification,' now seems poised to sweep that community into the dustbin -- which makes the photographs of Shirley O'Rourke even more precious. And until April 28th, the viewer can judge for himself by visiting the James M. Hunt Gallery at the Jane Addams Center Hull House -- "Exiled: Forgotten Faces of Chicago's Uptown," an exhibition of fifty-one black and white photographs from between AD 1990 and 2000 is on display.

"Exiled: Forgotten Faces of Chicago's Uptown" is an intriguing exhibition; not so much a documentation of place, but a serial portrait of a neighborhood's people; again, not personages nor personalities... people, real people. It is well-hung, and the quotations which accompany the show reveal that the artist and the gallery are well aware of the achievements in these photographs.

Shirley O'Rourke's motivations as a photographer are well served by the accompanying comment of Dorothea Lange on her own White Angel Breadline:

That's the first day I ever made a photograph actually on the street. I put it on the wall of my studio and customers, people whom I was making portraits of would come in and glance at them. And the only comment I ever got was, "what are you going to do with this kind of thing?" I didn't know. But I knew that picture was on my wall, and that it was worth doing.

O'Rourke has spent many years perfecting her technique, and taking photographs of Chicago's Uptown. Hers is the second exhibition at the newly opened James M. Hunt Gallery of the Jane Addams Center Hull House, and excellent collaboration between artist and gallery gives the viewer a coherent printed listing, a good showing, and a context which focuses on the artist's intent. The major force behind O'Rourke's photography is encapsulated by the citation from W. Eugene Smith:

Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
My station in life is to capture the action of life; the life of the world, its humor, its tragedy. In other words, life as it is. A true picture, unposed and real.

It is not certain that one could call many of the photographs here 'unposed.' O'Rourke has spent much time in Uptown, and has great empathy with its residents, who have come to know and trust her. Which is what makes the work so immediate. Again, the gallery's curation supplements the viewing with a quote from Diane Arbus:

If I were just curious, it would be very hard to say to someone, 'I want to come to your house and have you talk to me and tell me the story of your life.' I mean people are going to say, 'You're crazy.' Plus they're going to keep mighty guarded. But the camera is a kind of license. A lot of people, they want to be paid that much attention and that's a reasonable kind of attention to be paid.

Gallery Director, Elisabeth J.Rublev, notes in the Gallery brochure: "O'Rourke does not shoot and run. Although her subjects were suspicious of her at first, people grew to accept O'Rourke with her camera, as she returned, week after week, giving her subjects photographic prints of their own. Gradually, her subjects began to look forward to her weekly visits."

O'Rourke's range of subjects reflect Chicago's Uptown as it has been. A photograph such as Waiting for Daddy (Gallery List No.28: 1993), in which a young woman rubs noses with her young boy, seems a typical moment in the lives of American middle-class families; but Ruby (Gallery List No.31: 1992), a portrait of a young girl with a cigarette and an equally smoldering insouciance, subtly lays forth the early aging of the street-wise young. Without purse and privilege, children grow up early and age with speed.

One of the things graphically revealed in O'Rourke's work is how easily conventions and boundaries are mixed and crossed in Uptown. For both good and the bad: young co-mingles with old; and not race, religion nor custom form any barrier in the face of prejudice or poverty. Delilah & Her New Man (Gallery List No.27: 1996), which captures a black girl astride back seat on a motorcycle with her visibly older, crewcut Caucasian mate, exemplifies the nature of Uptown. English writer George Orwell, in his Down and Out in London and Paris, recorded the common bonds forged by those who, having no recourse to comfortable profession or worldly status, must stand with their common humanity. And Orwell acquired a deep understanding and respect for a common decency, a basic humanity shared by all people. Shirley O'Rourke's art confirms Orwell's visceral insight. A photograph such as O'Rourke's Gary & Helen (Gallery List No.42: 1998), reveals solid human bonds, an uptown romance. Gary & Helen is truly fine work; and demonstrates O'Rourke's rapport with her fellows and, as well, the formal qualities of photography -- technique. It is well-composed, expressively dramatic in its chiaroscuro light and shadow... and it is moving.

O'Rourke is not immune to irony; she merely employs it toward a humane realization. In Along the Beach (Gallery List No.20: 1999), a girl huddles beneath a blanket -- the open air is free, and so is time -- and yet, for the observant, there is an incongruity here: a luxury department store's paper bag serves as the girl's sunscreen. There is nothing maudlin nor condescending in O'Rourke's work: O'Rourke respects her subjects; it is the viewer who might feel compelled to ask if these semiotic disparities, and the implied economic divide, are just.

The photographs of Shirley O'Rourke at the James M. Hunt Gallery, Hull House, are indeed honest. The essence of good photography is to capture an artist's vision, no matter how varied that may be. But O'Rourke does not fall back on popularized truisms: her work reflects hardships, and camaraderie, resignation and aspiration. Mikey and Art (Gallery List No.38: 1992) is a prime example. In Mikey and Art, a young boy holds in display an album with a portrait of singer Art Garfunkel. The viewer does not need to know the specific details of O'Rourke's moment. Indeed, the image spurs individual speculations about the circumstance and leaves one to consider the meaning of the work's content. One can dream. That holds as true for the viewer as for the young boy in the photograph. If, as Janis Joplin once sang, "Freedom's just another word for 'Nothing left to lose,'" none of us are truly free. Each individual always has something, and seeks something. And it is there in Shirley O'Rourke's photography.

At times, O'Rourke captures sheer exuberance -- the false euphoria of disorientation, and, just as often, honest energy, a joy of life. Wilson and Magnolia, Winter (Gallery List No.1: 1990) seems a 'mad' salute to an unknown viewing public. Shakespeare once declaimed that "the mind can a hell or heaven be," and O'Rourke's image here leaves the viewer to decide: it is, as so much in life, a judgement call. Capturing the moment was the artist's strength: the image is strong, well executed, and a great credit to a quick photographic sensibility. "Exiled: Forgotten Faces of Chicago's Uptown" is well worth the time to view.

The photography of Shirley O'Rourke is precise, honest... demanding of the viewer; and as well chosen as it is well executed. Some subjects may appear 'posed,' but it is the people photographed who 'stand straight,' not a result of the photographer's compulsion. All to the good. And the visitor needs only to look well at Under the El (Gallery List No.36: 1993), which captures three urban black men, one of whom carries a white woman in his arms; or, Freckles with His Latest Lady (Gallery List No.30: 1998); he will see a truthful eye; crafted technique; and real life -- fine work.

In the James M. Hunt Gallery, with Shirley O'Rourke's photographs, is the curator's quote:

Our eye must constantly measure, evaluate. We alter our perspective by a slight bending of the knees; we convey the chance meeting of lines by a simple shift of our heads a thousandth of an inch... We compose almost at the same time we press the shutter, and in placing the camera close or farther from the subject, we shape the details -- taming or being tamed by them.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

This is the skill of Shirley O'Rourke, now on view at the James M. Hunt Gallery, Jane Addams Center/Hull House.

All of which is to say that O'Rourke's is an art not in thrall to changing fashion. It is, and will remain as timely as Dorothea Lange's: a human document and a moving and sensitive art. O'Rourke has been a student at the Jane Adams Photography Program for ten years, has drawn from the guidance of photographer Richard Stromberg, and, in this showing, is well curated by Elisabeth Rublev.

"Exiled: Forgotten Faces of Chicago's Uptown, Photographs by Shirley O'Rourke" will run until April 28, 2000 at the James M. Hunt Gallery, Jane Addams Center/ Hull House, 3212 North Broadway, Chicago. It's a worth-while visit.

Editor's Note : The Chicago Reader (April 7, 2000: http://www.chicagoreader.com) has profiled Richard Stromberg, who for thirty years has been photography instructor at the Jane Adams Hull House. --G. Jurek Polanski

Jurek Polanski has previously written and art edited for Strong Coffee in Chicago. He's also well known and respected among the Chicago museums and galleries. Jurek is currently a Visual Arts Correspondent for ArtScope.net.