features

south side

Jon Lowenstein - 2006 - 2011

south side

Chicago’s South Side has experiences major changes in the past five years, including a multimillion dollar rehabilitation of the Lakefront. Unfortunately, as the city is repackaged, the poorest residents are being squeezed out of the city and forced to move to new communities and are not reaping the benefits of gentrification and urban transformation.

For the past decade, Jon has been documenting the lives and social interactions of the different communities present in the South Side. In 2011, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Photography to allow him to continue his long term project about the South Side.

 

View of stormy Lake Michigan.
Madonna Driver runs in her front yard before she and her family moved to another neighborhood. Vacant lots that used to sell for $1 in the 1980's are valuable real estate and developers all over the South Side are clambering to scoop up the land that at o
Outside Starkesia Reed's house who was killed in her house by a drive-by shooting.
Back yard graduation celebration on Ingleside Ave in the Pocket Town Neighborhood.
Fans of Yung Jock scream and tossle for attention for the well known rapper as he rode by on the WGCI Radio Station's float in the annual Bud Billiken Parade in 2006.
Kids on bikes crossing Commercial and 91st St. on Chicago's Southeast Side.
A girl and her brothers pose for their picture in the Pocket. Approximately 63% of African-American kids grow up in single parent households.
Troy poses for a picture at the corner of 72nd and Woodlawn. I have photographed Troy posing for pictures in several locations of his choosing. He grew up in the neighborhood and has raised his family in the Pocket.
Funeral for Willie Jones Sr. who was born in Shably, Mississippi and moved to the neighborhood in the late 1950's.
Dream No Small Dreams. Man smokes in a vacant lot while hanging out with friends.
A stripper at a bachelor party.
An abandoned car in the back yard on Chicago's South Side.
Moving into a new home in the New Apartments in the Pocket Town neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.
Man stands on ladder while waiting for a chainsaw to arrive on the 7100 block of Dobson.
A boy raises his hands in Lake Michigan on the 63rd St. Beach on Chicago's South Side.
Matias Purnell poses for his portrait on the 7200 block of S. Chicago Ave. on Chicago's South Side.
LaToya Jackson poses for pictures before her senior prom with her mother, Carolyn and her boyfriend on their front porch of their S. Ingleside home. Her boyfriend, Magic, holds their son in his arms.
Uncle Al holds up his niece at Sam BinionÕs house on the 7200 block of S. Ellis.
Mariah Driver plays Hide and Seek with her sisters outside her house on S. Chicago St. in Chicago's Pocket Town neighborhood.
Vacant lot at the corner of 71st and Ingleside. The vacant lot now houses a building by the Comer Foundation.
 

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