One of the most versatile, productive and consistent conceptual photographers on today’s scene, Ryan Zoghlin receives a stunning mid-career retrospective in this exquisite show curated by Susan Aurinko. Ceaselessly trying out different kinds of cameras, film, and printing processes—old and new—Zoghlin always adapts technique to meaning, delivering distinctive integral images in each of the nine diverse series, with forty-three images on display. At one extreme of his sensibility, Zoghlin offers up alluring and dynamic infrared images (“aerotones”) of the vapor trails at air shows that explode the photographic abstraction into bursts of patterned energy. At another pole, Zoghlin’s constructed industrial landscapes (“Unnatural Resources”) taken with high-speed 35mm black-and-white film present one of the most ominous renditions of a negative utopia that is nonetheless spiked with humor—as when glass jars belching smoke create a white-hot fog worthy of a chemical disaster. Taken together, the components of the exhibition complement and enhance one another by contrast effects, giving viewers the opportunity to sample the varieties of visual intelligence. (Michael Weinstein)
Through April 22 at the Chicago Photography Center, 3301 North Lincoln
Fleeing Desperation: A Review of Ada Trillo at Chicago Center for Photojournalism In this heartbreaking yet visually beautiful exhibition, Ada Trillo implicates herself within her subjects to shine a light on both the hope and the hopelessness of their lives. If you are not moved by these images, surely your heart is made of stone.
Home Is Where the Family Is: A Review of Chicago Chiquito at Bridgeport Art Center This small but significant exhibition shows the history of Chicago Chiquito, or little Chicago, the nickname given to La Hacienda, a small town in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Its families have migrated north to find work for over one hundred years.
The Roots of Pride: A Review of Jerry Pritikin at The Chicago Center for Photojournalism The show “When Then Was Now” gives a glimpse of early LGBTQ+ life in San Francisco—Harvey Milk became mayor and gay activism was gaining momentum. Pritikin, a legend of reportage, takes us back to a time before AIDS reared its ugly head and shows us how the movement looked all those decades ago.
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