FINAL - Documentary Methods
From the latter part of the 19th century into the 1990s, Maxwell Street was an important center of commerce in the city of Chicago and a landing point for several migrant communities from all over the world. The Maxwell Street Market provided immigrant communities the opportunity to start businesses. The Market was a fixture of Chicago’s near west side until the 1990s, when the surrounding property was bought by the University of Illinois Chicago.
Since then, the Market has continued in a more limited capacity, first on Canal St. then on Desplaines. But in the summer of 2024, UIC allowed the market to come back to the original Maxwell Street.
These images are a record of the Maxwell Street Market in it’s 21st century iteration. This new Maxwell street is a relic of a once important cultural institution that with the passage of time and the influence of new centers of power (DCASE, UIC), has become a significantly diminished version of what it once was. There are people on Maxwell street who still very much care about preserving the memory of what this place was. People like Steve Balkin, who is part of the Maxwell St. Foundation, a non-profit historical society that acts in the interest of expanding and preserving the Maxwell Street Market.
Week 3 - 9/15/24 - Mexican Independence Day
Week 3 Mexican Independence Day.
Grant Park, Chicago, IL.
Week 2: Show and Tell #2 - Garry Winogrand Public Relations
By Nathan Bieneman
Garry Winogrand is among the most lauded and acclaimed photographers in history, generally listed as one of the most influential street photographers of all time. His third of four books, Public Relations is a great deal more focused than much of his other work. Public Relations deals specifically with the relationships between the American people, American culture, and the media. Public Relations documents the societal paradigm shift which occurred during the 50s and 60s with the popularization of television and the new dynamics between the media, those who do the recording, and their subjects.
Week 1: Show & Tell #1 - Josef Koudelka’s Invasion 68 Prague
Josef Koudelka | Invasion 68: Prague Prague, Czechoslovakia. August, 1968. © Josef Koudelka | Magnum Photos
By Nathan Bieneman
August 20, 1968. The Soviet Union supported by military forces from several Eastern Bloc countries invaded the city of Prague, quelling a growing liberal reform movement and tightening Soviet control over the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Josef Koudelka, a Czech-French photographer, was present for the events that would later be referred to as the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia. The collection of his images, published in a book years later called Invasion 68: Prague.
When I encountered this book in the college library, I was immediately impressed by the raw emotive strength of the images. The pictures are accompanied by rich text, primary sources which provide specific factual detail as to what happened during the brief conflict.
It’s important to note that in this case Koudelka’s images are those produced by an insider looking out. As a Czech himself, he must have felt many of the same feelings as we see reflected in the faces of his countrymen.
From Wikipedia:
“ Koudelka's pictures of the [1968 invasion] became dramatic international symbols, and came to be "recognised as one of the most powerful photojournalistic essays of the 20th century".[4] In 1969 the "anonymous Czech photographer" was awarded the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal for photographs requiring exceptional courage. Many of his photographs of these events were not seen until decades later.[4]”
