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Many street photographers remain off the art world's radar, and until recently Gary Stochl was also invisible.
The book of his photographs taken in Chicago from 1964 to 2004 had been on my want list since it was first
published. I waited patiently to see if it would make it to the Strand or some other store at a nice discount.
I spend too much on photographer's monographs to pay full price all the time. $25 is cheap so I bought the
book and have now looked at it and read it three times. It's always good to look at a book of photographs more
than once before trying to analyze it. I like this book a lot and recommend it to anyone who loves black & white
"Street Photography". I found 12 or 13 images to be really good or great and the rest of the book was a little
disappointing since there are only 53 images. The book is a retrospective of a forty year career, so I thought
there would be a few more images that would have been "over the top", but maybe if I'd seen Stochl's entire
archives, I would have selected some different images for this book.
The forward by Bob Thall makes a big deal about the fact that Stochl didn't have all the luxuries that he had,
such as an education in photography and grants and galleries etc. I know several excellent photographers
who fall into that category and some of them didn't even know HCB & Robert Frank's work, which gave
Stochl a big edge in the outside influence department. I know from over twenty years experience that you
work hard at any art despite a lack of financial remuneration, because it's in you and you can't help it.
Dry spells come and go and self doubt is almost always present, but the few successes keep you going even
when the reality of zero rewards makes it seem almost masochistic to continue. The occasional print that
emerges from the tray of chemicals (or printer), looking worthy of a frame & mat, makes all the hard work
and even all the failures along the way, time well spent...
