Maxwell Street - Between Times

Maxwell Street has an almost mythical presence in Chicago's history. It was the street where penniless immigrants came to hawk their goods and step into the American entrepreneurial dream, and where Chicago blues found its electric soul. Today it is a sanitized location, a suburban mall in the city, satisfying the need of the University of Illinois-Chicago to present its neighborhood as safe and invitiing.

This group of photographs is about the people who lived on Maxwell Street during the time between its storied past and sanitized present. These fiercely independent and socially outcast people created a community of their own, a community of music, art, culture and family.