Paul D’Amato

There is nothing particularly unique about the west side of Chicago. It’s not the poorest, the oldest, the largest, or the most African-American of African-American communities in the U.S. It is just like every other swath of poverty in and around every single city in the U.S. We are led to believe that the only time these communities are in crisis is when something occurs that lands on a front page. The real crisis, however, is on-going and it’s one of acceptance – acceptance of the conditions, day in day out. Yet, when Paul D’Amato is there, visiting someone he knows, or simply stopping someone he has never met, something besides a concern for poverty takes shape. This is what he photographs. When these subjects agree to be photographed, they stand for the best and only example of who they are. The photographs won’t change these neighborhoods. But they remind us that the individuals in the images aren’t »they« or »them«, they are »he« and »she« and are as important as any one of us.
Paul D’Amato teaches photography at Columbia College Chicago. His work has been widely exhibited and is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others. He is represented by Stephen Daiter Gallery/Daiter Contemporary, Chicago.