Mediocrity Is Yours

I am back from that large and ungainly city. There’s nothing like taking portraits of people, suspecting and unsuspecting.

Let me tell you about one of the individuals shown here; I happened to pass a man on the street at an intersection. He had a Leica M3 around his neck. I eyed his camera and he eyed mine, and as we passed we nodded knowingly at each other. The next day, I saw him again and this time I made it my mission to speak with this man with which coincidence had brought us to cross paths twice in the 2 days I was in Chicago. There were introductions made and we spoke a bit about street photography and of cameras, then we went our seperate ways. I had a train to catch, with Keith and Pierre standing with me. I didn’t feel like chatting too long with him since they were nearby. I did not know who he was when I chatted with him on the streets of Chicago, but I sure did look him up when I got back home.

He has been shooting on the streets for 40 years. He bought a Leica M3 in 1968 and has been shooting with that ever since. He has no job, he just goes out on the streets and shoots photos. He had never shown his photography to anyone until recently.

Read all about him: Intro to Gary
A sample of his work is here: Photos

He had an aura about him. They were his streets. Chicago was his. It was pervasive, which is why I took a photo of him. He has that kind of invigorating confidence, clarity of purpose and focus that rubs off on you. It felt as if I was meeting a hero in his home city, and this is before I knew who he was.

I feel like I’ve met superman, and he carries an M3.

Anyways, without further adieu, here are a few other street portraits I made on the 2 days I wandered downtown: