Demolitian I, from the "Robert Taylor" project
Maker
Bridges, Jack D.
(American, b. 1977)
Date2003
MediumGelatin silver print
Dimensionsimage: 18 3/8 in x 18 3/8 in; mat: 30 in x 24 1/8 in; paper: 23 7/8 in x 20 in
Credit LineGift of the artist
Object number2017:332
About the ArtistDrawn at first to the abandoned architecture of what was once the largest housing project in the world, Jack Bridges soon decided that what really merited documentation of the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago (1962 to 2007) was the community still living in those few remaining structures before they were demolished. For several years, Bridges created the photographs of the area by getting to know the residents of the South Side Chicago public housing project and making portraits that connected the people with the place. The sepia-toned gelatin-silver prints suggest the same warmth as their tint, by no means a nostalgia for the urban environment, but rather a respect for the humanity of its denizens. Jack Bridges was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He holds a BA in history from Colgate University, Hamilton, New York (2000) and an MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (2002). In 2005, photographs from The Robert Taylor Project were published in Fader magazine and City Journal, and solo exhibitions of the series were held at Northwestern University and at Filtro in Miami. He has also made a short film, Inside Robert Taylor, on the same subject. Bridges’s previous work includes a series on the East Side of Detroit, and a series on paramilitary murals across Northern Ireland.
