This publication celebrates, and expands upon, the 2018 exhibition Never a Lovely So Real: Photography and Film in Chicago, 1950–1980, which presented the work of practitioners across the city who vividly captured the spirit of their communities. It is a distinct pleasure to welcome back Michal Raz-Russo, who curated the exhibition as the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Associate Curator of Photography and Media, along with contributing authors and photographers, most of whom last came together at the Art Institute of Chicago seven years ago. As Darryl Cowherd noted in the public roundtable conversation held during the run of the show and transcribed here, Gordon Parks and Robert Earl Wilson, the subjects of the museum’s first two solo exhibitions of Black photographers (in 1953 and 1962, respectively), provided inspiration and mentorship to some of the South and West Side artists whose achievements of the 1960s and 1970s are celebrated in this publication. This informal network of photojournalists, at one point referred to as the “Chicago School,” focused on daily life and cultural events in their own communities. Through scholarly essays that contextualize their accomplishments, first-person narratives that give voice to the artists, and contemporary reflections on their continued significance, this publication marks a significant contribution to the history of Chicago photography. We are thrilled for Never a Lovely So Real to join twenty other open-access digital publications produced by the Art Institute over the last decade, reflecting our commitment to making new scholarship accessible to the widest possible audience.

The Art Institute was not the primary point of reference for these photographers; as they discuss, organizations like the Johnson Publishing Company and the South Side Community Art Center—where, photographer James Stricklin recalled, Parks himself put in a surprise appearance—and more established colleagues such as Ted Williams and Robert A. Sengstacke both influenced the group and provided sustained guidance. Their work was exhibited not primarily by galleries or institutions but in the pages of Black-owned and -run local and national illustrated magazines and at neighborhood gathering places like the street murals The Wall of Respect and West Wall: Proud of Being Black and the weekend music venue The Garage. This history testifies to the robustness and ingenuity of Black arts culture in Chicago and beyond but also to the lack of engagement from the city’s major art venues, including this museum.

While the Art Institute held its first exhibition dedicated to African American art in the 1920s, the museum inconsistently and sporadically acquired and displayed Black artists’ work for much of the twentieth century. A renewed commitment to acquiring paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and photography by Black artists kicked off in the 1990s, with a particular focus on local artists. The 2012 exhibition Dawoud Bey: Harlem, USA inaugurated a new era of sustained attention to the work of Black photographers. Bey’s complete series was acquired at the time of that show, and directly thereafter the curatorial department of Photography and Media began building attention to work by African and African-descended artists solidly into its program. Fully one dozen solo and group exhibitions have since been organized in the departmental galleries in addition to Never a Lovely So Real, and many hundreds of relevant works have been added to the collection—including many of those reproduced here. Matthew S. Witkovsky, Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator and Vice President for Strategic Art Initiatives, has been instrumental to these efforts. This publication is indebted to the sustained efforts of Michal Raz-Russo, during her time at the Art Institute and also now as programs director at the Gordon Parks Foundation, and her successor, Grace Deveney, who specializes in African American media and performance arts and joined Raz-Russo in editing and contributing to this publication. Romi Crawford, a faculty colleague at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an authority on The Wall of Respect and the Black Arts Movement in Chicago, collaborated as editor and author.

Their efforts have been underwritten in part by the Terra Foundation for American Art, to whom we express abiding gratitude for their support of the museum’s many endeavors. Further assistance in organizing the 2018 exhibition came generously from the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation and Allison and Susan Davis. An endowment from the Mellon Foundation helps disseminate research on Art Institute collections; as always, we are grateful for this invaluable fund.

Finally, this publication is only possible because this group of photographers and their supporters never forgot about these images or the people, places, and moments they capture. We are grateful and fortunate that many of them are still here to reflect on their own work, and particularly thank Darryl Cowherd, Mikki Ferrill, Roy Lewis, Ozier Muhammad, and James Stricklin for their participation in this project. We are also mindful and mournful of several photographers who are no longer with us for this celebration of their place in the history of American photography. They made a real difference in this city, and their legacy extends well beyond the beautiful and powerful photographs that now feature in the museum’s collection and in this publication.

James Rondeau
President and Eloise W. Martin Director
The Art Institute of Chicago