Wayne Miller's photographs chronicle a black Chicago of fifty years ago: the South Side community that burgeoned as thousands of African Americans, almost exclusively from the South, settled in the city during the Great Migration of the World War II years. The black-and-white images provide a visual history of Chicago at the height of its industrial order--when the stockyards, steel mills, and factories were booming--but, more important, they capture the intimate moments in the daily lives of ordinary people. Miller was ...
Read More
Wayne Miller's photographs chronicle a black Chicago of fifty years ago: the South Side community that burgeoned as thousands of African Americans, almost exclusively from the South, settled in the city during the Great Migration of the World War II years. The black-and-white images provide a visual history of Chicago at the height of its industrial order--when the stockyards, steel mills, and factories were booming--but, more important, they capture the intimate moments in the daily lives of ordinary people. Miller was adept at becoming invisible, and his photographs are full of naked, disarming emotion. One of the first Western photographers to document the destruction of Hiroshima and the survivors of the bombing, Wayne Miller had just returned from his stint as a World War II Navy combat photographer under the direction of Edward Steichen when he received two concurrent Guggenheim fellowships to fund his Chicago project. Taken over a course of three years beginning in 1946, his photographs span city scenes from storefront church services to slaughterhouse workers in the taverns at night to a couple making love. In addition to affording a glimpse into the hopes and hardships shared by a community of migrants who had just made the long journey from the rural South to the urban North, the images collected in Chicago's South Side reflect the enormous variety of human experiences and emotions that occurred at a unique time and place in the American landscape. A few celebrities appear in these images--Paul Robeson, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington. But mostly we see ordinary people--in clubs and at church, sporting events, parades. Much is on view that is of interest to the student of mid-twentieth-century black Chicago: the neighborhoods Richard Wright's Bigger Thomas traversed in Native Son, the Bronzeville limned in Gwendolyn Brooks's earliest poems, and the street life that inspired the urbanscapes of painter Archibald Motley. The kitchenette apartments that Miller so deftly memorializes are bursting with people of all ages sleeping, dressing, courting, and dreaming. One senses the intimacy between his subjects and the emotions that animate their lives. Gordon Parks's memoir of poverty and hope in the freezing tenements of the South Side supplements the photographs, while Robert Stepto's essay contextualizes the South Side in the history of postwar Chicago. Chicago's South Sideis a superb testament to the talent of the photographer, to the spirit of the people the images portray, and to the moment in American history these photographs capture.
Read Less
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $2.05, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $2.05, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $3.16, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill of the Olympics rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from TACOMA, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. An acceptable and readable copy. All pages are intact, and the spine and cover are also intact. This item may have light highlighting, writing or underlining through out the book, curled corners, missing dust jacket and or stickers.
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $3.35, fair condition, Sold by BooksRun rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Philadelphia, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $4.23, good condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $4.53, good condition, Sold by Solr Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Skokie, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. We flipped through this book and didn't notice any notes or underlines. The dust jacket shows normal wear and tear. The book is slightly cocked Fast Shipping-Each order powers our free bookstore in Chicago and sending books to Africa!
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $10.00, very good condition, Sold by David's Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from ypsilanti, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $17.49, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Ruby rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948 to cart. $20.00, very good condition, Sold by Avon Hill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Cambridge, MA, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by University of California Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 0520223160. Front free endpaper (blank page) has been removed.; Full-page b/w photos. Due to size, ships within US only and only by media rate mail.; Square Small 4to 9"-11" tall; 127 pp.