Torah Burial, Post-Arson Fire
Maker
Wolke, Jay
American, b. 1954
Date1993
MediumChromogenic development print
Dimensionsimage: 14 in x 17 1/2 in; mat: 20 in x 24 in; paper: 16 in x 20 in
Credit LineGift of Jeanne L. and Richard S. Press
Object number1999:370
About the ArtistJay Wolke embarked on his first large-scale photographic project in 1981, titled Along the Divide (1981-1985). The color photographs in this series revolve around the Dan Ryan Expressway, a multi-lane, heavily trafficked highway that runs through densely populated parts of Chicago. By his own description, Wolke set out to examine the Dan Ryan as a "massive expression of the urban lexicon." His photographs are not simply about the monolithic construction itself, but also the ecosystem of human and industrial elements that has formed around it and in response to it. Wolke trains his lens on such subjects as buildings near the highways, homeless people living under overpasses, drivers in their cars, stranded motorists, and the chaotic aftermath of car accidents. The Dan Ryan Expressway project was a pivotal venture in Wolke’s professional career, paving the way for his rigorous approach to other large-scale projects in subsequent years. In 1987, Wolke participated in the Changing Chicago Project, one of the largest documentary photography projects ever organized in an American city. The project was sponsored by the Focus/Infinity Fund of Chicago, founded by photographer and philanthropist Jack Jaffe, and launched in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Farm Security Administration documentary project. Thirty-three photographers of various styles were employed to create a multifaceted record of the city's diverse urban and suburban neighborhoods and inhabitants, culminating in concurrent exhibitions across Chicago’s major museums and a book entitled Changing Chicago: A Photodocumentary (University of Illinois Press, 1989). For his contribution, Wolke photographed the activity of Maxwell Street, the city's famous open-air market. The market began in the mid-1800s as the neighborhood emerged as a port of entry for immigrant populations. It was razed in the 1960s, however, to make way for the Dan Ryan Expressway, and ultimately took on a different form with a new generation of pushcarts, vendors, and hustlers by the time Wolke photographed it.
In the mid-1990s, Wolke completed a photographic study, entitled All Around the House (1993-1997), of the communal events and rituals of diverse communities of American Jews. "From its inception," Wolke states, "this photographic project was a generalist proposition, deliberately portraying complex demonstrations of traditional Jewish values as they filtered though the screen of American culture." Wolke's photographs capture the gestures and emotional exchanges of his subjects as they participate in weddings, Passover Seders, Hanukkah celebrations, and Torah readings. All Around the House serves as a visual interpretation of diverse Jewish communities’ responses to ancient rituals evolving within a modern American context.
For his next project, Wolke turned his focus to architectural ruins in Mezzogirono, the southern region of Italy, which has a long history of colonization and warfare. Architecture of Resignation (1999-2009) investigates how the landscape becomes an elaborate set of physical, social, and political structures. From the Greeks and Romans to the Catholic Church and present-day Italian government, Italy has seen drastic shifts in economic revival, collapse, and corruption. The structures Wolke photographs have been adapted and abandoned, representing the country’s own shifts and exchanges. Images such as an abandoned and deteriorating WWII post, an ancient trash-filled Roman Mausoleum, and an empty unfinished church, demonstrate Wolke’s perception of the troubled landscape. In a region stereotyped for being particularly susceptible to poverty and illiteracy, these architectural artifacts point to ambitious agendas of generations past.
Jay Wolke was born in Chicago, where he is currently an Associate Professor or Photography at Columbia College. He completed a BFA in Printmaking, Illustration, and Design at Washington University, St. Louis and an MS in Photography at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Wolke has won numerous awards and grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, Focus Infinity Fund, and the Ruttenberg Arts Foundation. He has held solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago; the St. Louis Art Museum; Harvard University, Cambridge; the California Museum of Photography; and the Foundation Studio Marangoni in Florence, Italy. His work is in held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Art Institute of Chicago; the and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Wolke has published four monographs of his work: All Around the House: Photographs of American-Jewish Communal Life (1998), Along the Divide: Photographs of the Dan Ryan Expressway (2004), Architecture of Resignation (2011), and Same Dream Another Time (2017).
