- January 30, 2012
- 12:01 am
- Karis Hustad
- 4 comments
Powerful exhibit comes to SOC
From January to November 2011, there were 400 murders in Chicago, according to the Chicago Police Department’s January-November 2011 Crime Summary. Of those, in over half the cases the victim was under age 25.
Though murder is commonplace on the front page of many newspapers, one Chicago-based photojournalist seeks to go beneath the statistics and headlines to the story behind the communities ripped apart by youth violence. Carlos Javier Ortiz in his photo exhibition, Too Young To Die has captured the aftermath of youth violence in some of the most violent areas in the nation, the city of Chicago included. His project has been in the works for five years, and this past Friday, Loyola’s School of Communication became the newest host of his work thus far.
Dean of the School of Communication Don Heider says Ortiz’s work came to his attention when acting as a juror for a series of grants for the Chicago Community Trust. He says he was immediately struck by Ortiz’s dedication to the topic.
“We were very impressed with his work, that he had been working for several years to document the aftermath and the effects of youth violence in Chicago in a more in depth and meaningful way than we get in media today,” he says.
The photographs are visually striking and emotionally stirring; a collection of images that provoke questions and provide a literal snapshot of the communities and families dealing with violence in their neighborhood. However, the subject matter and photographs are a figurative and literal step away from the School of Communication’s exhibitions in the past. Last semester featured the pop-art advertisements of commercial artist Laurie Rubin, which provided an example of how a professional could indulge in their artistic side while making a living. Though the tone of the two exhibitions is different, Dean Heider says Ortiz’s work sends the same message.
“Carlos is the same way, he is an artist but he is not a commercial artist,” he says. “He is doing more documentary work, but he is doing what he is passionate about.”
Cheryl Manley, events coordinator for the School of Communication, also points out that this exhibition is salient for the School of Communication. She says that Ortiz frequently goes to the scene of these crimes to photograph the aftermath, and consequently has been kicked out of many investigations, which begs the question of when people are allowed to document police proceedings. The issue at hand is Illinois’s eavesdropping law, which prohibits the audio recording of public police activity, and was discussed at a panel hosted by the School of Communication last Wednesday.
The School of Communication hosted an opening reception for the exhibition last Friday in the SOC lobby, where Ortiz answered questions about his work. In addition, guests were invited to write their thoughts about the photographs and the issue of youth violence on Post-It notes, which will be displayed as part of the exhibition.
This is also the first of a series of exhibitions that Dean Heider is hoping to do on the issue of youth violence in Chicago, including a screening of the film Woke Up Black in February and a possible panel of journalists who report on this issue later in the year. Dean Heider says this topic is one that doesn’t seem to go away, yet is continuously ignored in the media.
“It is not going away, it does not seem to be getting better,” he says. “Kids are dying in Chicago and I think it is good for us to be located in Chicago but a part of Chicago, and a part of the dialogue about what is happening in our city, and what we can do to stem the tide of violence.”
For more information on the events, visit the School of Communication website.
Although many find such exhibits too depressing and dramatic for them to handle, I think there should be such displays, as they communicate very real events and disasters that we should be aware of and not pretend they don’t exist!
Such dramatic imagery. I can’t imagine the devastation and hardships of the depicted people. Horrific.
S. Moves
It’s important that efforts like this be mounted to illustrate what a cesspool much our inner cities have become. Loyola and its department of education need to be vociferous in demanding that parents have the right to choose their children’s schools. Get the kids out of the government school breeding grounds for violence, ignorance and amorality.
Commitment to the community in which you inhabit is crucial to its transcendence over dilapidation. Through its true Jesuit dedication, Loyola is trying to expose harsh realities in an effort to stir up creative solutions. I am very proud of Loyola as not only an academic institution, but also a piece of the Chicago community.