Uptown: Portrait of a Chicago Neighborhood in the Mid-1970s
Bob Rehak

A Thousand Words, Indeed – Sometimes a walk back in time is the best way to understand the present and glimpse the future. And what is every photograph – a snapshot of this one particular moment – but a walk back in time? Bob Rehak’s photographs of the boys and girls, and men and women on the sidewalks and cluttered lots of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood from 40 years ago are stunning black-and-white portraits. The book features image after image of smiles and scowls, kids playing, gang members brandishing pistols, old women shopping, panhandlers asking for help, fathers posing happily with daughters, mothers hugging sons, friends cheering, drunks sleeping, strangers passing quietly on the street. Each could be re-created today in Uptown. Neighborhoods change; but, change comes very slowly in Uptown. Incrementally. Marginally. Around the edges. Especially for those already living on the edge. My friend Oz, who I met as the 1970s came to a close, gave me this collection of photographs as a birthday present. Oz’s heart is as empathetic as Rehak’s camera lens. I like to think, with this book, both Rehak and Oz are telling me, “Look. Remember. Know.”