Review: Grant Ramsey/Chicago Cultural Center

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A man on a mission, Grant Ramsey took his camera to the streets of Nicaraguan cities and towns, snapping informal color shots of everyday life that are uniformly affirmative. Ramsey is out to dispel the victim myth that third-world people live lives of drudgery and desperation; the way he sees it, we are all human-all-too-human, trying to take pleasure as we can in the daily round, whether it be hanging out, trading at the market, stoking a fiery furnace, dancing at the club, or washing clothes as a pig roots around in the dirt and the kids go off in every direction—among other humble scenes too numerous to mention. Is there a danger in presenting the upside of relatively impoverished life? Ramsey, who has a doctorate in philosophy, does not see one, opting for the family-of-man approach, which dignifies our shared vital will to be happy wherever we are. (Michael Weinstein)

Through September 26 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington

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