Photographing under a fellowship of the Focus/Infinity Fund, as one of a group of photographers under a larger rubric the Fund had sponsored, called Changing Chicago, I spent about three years in a dinner jacket presenting myself as the affable and diffid ent society photographer for an unnamed magazine of fashion. My interest lay in the ways these social rituals of "charity" were complex negotiations of social status. Gestures and costumes, mini-events, ritual gestures: these were the repertoire I beca me attentive to; in the process I made about 100 pictures that seemed to me interesting both as pictures and as works of caricature. I had been teaching Hogarth at the time, and I think some of his acerbity rubbed off on me. When the pictures appeared in simultaneous exhibits at the Chicago Historical Society and the Art Institute of Chicago, my phone stopped ringing with invitations to photograph parties, celebrations, and the other "events" of the social season.
Chicago Historical Society Gala, 1988
Alzheimer's Benefit, Chicago Hilton, 1987
Outside the Entrance to Charity Ball, 1987
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at pbhales@uic.edu
