FRAMED IN CHICAGO

It’s said that nature abhors vacuum and it’s probably no less valid to say that frames abhor emptiness. Stand an empty frame anywhere and it will instantly frame an image, be it a landscape, a portrait, a still life, a pose, a gesture, a decisive moment, or a humble snapshot.

         When I came upon a heavy, silver, ornate frame, the size of a pair of doors, it somehow made me think of Blake’s “doors of perception” and then it occurred to me that this frame might perhaps become a means of perception by which Chicago could see and frame itself…

If I were to test this idea, where should I set up the frame to provide the most revealing self-expressions of the city?

I finally chose to lug the frame to city beaches for all-day happenings. Chicago has beautiful beaches, which nearly all have their own cultures. And the beach is the place where people bare the most of themselves. Also, along the water’s edge, there are few social gradients, so it’s also easier to make connections there.

         I set few rules for the project. I decided to stay mostly in the background. I’d  merely record what happens when people encounter a Baroque frame on the beach. If someone wanted to use it as a make-shift studio and shoot portraits of their companions on a cell phone through it, I’d encourage them. If someone else wanted to pose in the frame for a portrait, I’d be there with my camera to give them a professional one. If a kid wanted to jump through the frame, I’d record that too. And the same would go for any dog that might choose to mark the frame as his or her territory. Meanwhile, I would also record the vistas changing inside the frame, the vendors fleetingly framed by it as they passed by, or the boats, floats and birds as they floated in the background…

         The idea is to conduct a loose sociological experiment while coming up with interesting photographs: how does an empty frame pique the creativity of accidental passersby? Who seizes the unexpected opportunity for self-expression that it beckons, and how? What kind of a person respects the picture plane and who violates it? And so on and on…

        Chicago has 26 official beaches. We have documented 11 beaches to date.