A precarious time

 Chicago, December 1, 1998. Fullerton (at Milwaukee) This is about as far back as my scanned archives go. I never got to my earlier work which is in storage roughly 6,000 miles away these days 💔 Since my practice is not really photography anymore and I can finally say that without ripping my heart out, I am able to revisit & recontextualize this earlier work. Thanks for being on part of that journey with me here 📷
These trucks parked across the street from my old place on the SE corner of Milwaukee & Fullerton. Our place directly overlooked the empty lot to the left which was parking for a really popular quinceanera venue/nightclub (the Royale?). I was 19 years old and it was a precarious time. One freezing cold night my roommate and I were sitting getting high in the living room when we saw cops ambush and start brutally beating some young Latino dudes across the street (we called them gangbangers back then). She got so outraged she ran outside in her house shoes with her little handheld camcorder that she had checked out from SAIC for an assignment 😅 She started screaming at them to stop, saying she had it on film. They took her tape and slammed her onto a car. They told her they should arrest her and to go the fuck home. We were all so outraged and shook up and got so high after that. The whole thing was terrible and not really an uncommon scene across the street.

Heroin was really big in the neighborhood back then. That winter was rough. I remember waiting for the bus on Milwaukee and the digital bank clock flashing the temperature while I sat there like a popsicle ...8°….5:01…..8°….5:01...7°...5:02... It was like time itself was frozen. There was a blizzard that winter that shut down the entire city for a day. We put layers on and went sledding right down the middle of Fullerton Avenue.