Book Description

City streets are perhaps the most paradoxically anonymous and personal of all public spaces in the city: people blindly collide in their rush to reach their destinations, while the homeless look for humanity amid the thousands passing by. Gary Stochl captures this daily drama in On City Streets, a penetrating examination of the unpredictable people, places, and events that make up the streets of downtown Chicago. It is a stunning collection made even more so by the fact that this is the first work of Stochl's to be seen in his forty years as a photographer. Until 2003, Stochl had never shown his photographs to anyone; his rich body of images remained completely unknown to the public. Self-taught and working in isolation, Stochl carefully studied the work of other renowned urban photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. Through his studies, he learned how to see his subjects, and he developed a visual language uniquely his own, unfettered by fashion or community. The results of his efforts are these powerful images that provide a starkly honest and penetrating glimpse into the lives of city dwellers and their internal struggle with the loneliness of contemporary urban life. Like all great images, Stochl's photographs leave the viewer with an altered sense of the world. On City Streets offers, with unnerving directness and consistency, that rare artistic combination of visual sophistication and stunning emotional resonance. With this book, Stochl joins the ranks of Chicago's great photographers.