Michael Abramson

#114, 1970s Nightclubs of Chicago South Side - Rare Vintage Silver Gelatin Print

1974-1977

A camera is a window through which a photographer interacts with the world, and it's up to the operator to decide whether his camera will be a barrier or a mirror between he and his subjects. In the 1970s, Michael Abramson chose the latter path when he brought his camera to Pepper's Hideout on Chicago's South Side. Following in the footsteps of his acknowledged influence Gyula Halász, a Hungarian photographer better known as Brassaï who became the pre-eminent chronicler of the Paris nightlife he loved so much, Abramson initiated himself into the nightlife of Chicago's predominantly black neighbourhoods. He was very much a part of the scene he documented on film, drinking, laughing, and dancing with his subjects into small hours and becoming as much a part of the atmosphere as the locals who frequented the same nightspots he did. - Joe Tangari (Numero Group, 2009) This series won Abramson a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978 and launched his career as a photojournalist. Eventually the project resulted in a hardbound book, Light: On the South Side, including the Grammy and Mojo nominated album, featuring Chicago blues...

Singspiel, Stallion Portrait 2001 by John Reardon 76 x 51 cm Edition of 5 only Silver Gelatin Print, Mounted on Aluminium, Custom framed, UV protective Mu...

A black-and-white image shot on film by Roberta Fineberg becomes an abstract chiaroscuro portrait of a woman in elegant clothing -- a semi-sophis...

Perestroika Glasnost signaled an historic openness in Russia in the early 1990s. Roberta Fineberg traveled to Moscow to document on film events unrolling in a country whose leader M. Gorbachev had declared the end of communism in the Soviet Union. The black-and-white image of musicians at a celebrated classical music...