Leica photographer Gary Stochl

Using his M3, Gary Stochl took b & w photos on the streets of my old

hometown, Chicago. Now, he's an "overnight sensation."<p><p>

See <a

href=http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00CFZm>

Christopher Chen's thread here</a> for details.

Oops - blew the punch line.

That should've read as follows:

Using his M3, Gary Stochl took b & w photos on the streets ... for 36 years. Now, he's an "overnight sensation."

Here is the 2005 audio piece on him from Chicago Public Radio :<br>

<a href="http://www.wbez.org/DWP_XML/848/2005_04/848_20050422_0835_4795/

segment_204666.ram">http://www.wbez.org/DWP_XML/

848/2005_04/848_20050422_0835_4795/segment_204666.ram</a>

He makes very nice use of contrasting tones.

I saw his show at the Chicago Cultural Center. He was there to present his work, but an

annoying curator kept interrupting him and telling him what the work was about. Talking to

him after, Stochl seemed like a nice guy.

Ben

I thought the response of the director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College-Chicago was a classic. Rod Slemmons said, noting that he wasn't necessarily questioning the quality of Mr. Stochl's images, that "if he's just as good as Robert Frank, or someone like that, we'd rather spend our money on Robert Frank."

This attitude is often why when you go to a museum, regional photographers are very rarely found in their collections, unless their funding mandates that a certain percentage of their money MUST be spent on regional artists.

I love museums. I give them all the credit in the world for the funding difficulties they face on a daily basis, but they are frequently so myopically focused on buying one of what the other guy has, they miss out on the mission of historical preservation, which I think is often much more important.

Why would you buy a Frank? Just because every other museum has one? Let Winterthur in Switzerland be the Frank repository and collect what Chicago has produced before it gets lost forever.

Of course, Mr. Stochl is a challenge to us all to just go out and shoot.

Interesting points, Jorn.

Also, what's that old saying: "It's hard to be a hero in your own hometown."

Actually, Jorn, might I suggest a link for you and some education about what it is that the MOCP does. I think that you will find that their support of those very "regional photographers" that you say get ignored is actually unparalleled.

http://www.mocp.org/collections/mpp/

Cheers