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Thomas Marlow

Documenting Chicago, one portrait at a time.

Monday Nov 06, 2006.     By Julia Steinberger

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As of two months ago, photographer Thomas Marlow (pictured) had never taken a portrait. Now he hardly does anything else, sometimes logging 12-hour days as he works toward his goal: to have taken 10,000 photos of the individuals, families, couples and friends that happen to walk by.

His plan: To print each photo on a large tile, then re-tile the walls of the Grand Red Line station, a functional tribute to the people of the city he loves most. Marlow calls his work the "Chicago Street Studio Project," and it's quickly gathering steam. After Marlow set up shop at the Silk Roads Oasis in September, Nathan Mason of the Public Art Department approached him with the offer of a stipend and a chance to take over the city-owned storefront space beneath the tracks at State and Lake as a resident artist of Chicago's Open Studio Program.

With a wide-open door and signs taped in the windows reading, "Free Photos," Marlow never wants for subjects. In a process that takes about 15 minutes, participants sign a waiver releasing the images to him, and then he snaps away, joking and smiling all the while to get the people in front of his stark-white backdrop to loosen up and look "real." At the end, each chooses one photo that Marlow prints out for them to take home.

On a break from shooting last Saturday, as he gulped down his "regular" (gooey grilled cheese with chopped garlic and tomato, roasted jalapeno and a Corona on the side) in the Renaissance Hotel across the street, he shared his plans and worries: He's drummed up a lot of excitement about the project, has investors interested and is shooting at O'Hare during November. All that stands in his way is a hefty barricade of bureaucracy.

How long have you been in Chicago?
Six years. I love Chicago. In my hitchhiking travels, I've been to every major city, and I would say that Chicago is pretty much the best city in America. It's clean, it's beautiful, people care about the arts here, people care about keeping the place green.

What do you do when you're not working on the Street Studio?
Actually, this project is kind of taking up all my time. It kind of scares me, because by December 31, I'm going to run out of the money that I have saved up, and I've got to find funding so I can continue to shoot at the rate I've been shooting. I've got to shoot 20 portraits a day to make my goal of 10,000 portraits by December 2007.

How do you think it's going to happen?
Hopefully, it'll be as simple as getting Mayor Daley into a room for five minutes, and getting him excited about it. It's got to start with things like people writing letters to the mayor's office saying that they want this thing to happen.

Why do you think it's important to have all these pictures on record?
It shows the international flavor of Chicago. I took a photograph of a 95-year-old with a moustache who was wearing a pimped-out yellow suit, like from the '30s, and a hat. He was beautiful to me. And then there was Minerva, an 87-year-old black woman who had just lost her husband of 65 years two weeks before I took her portrait. She is beautiful. Wrinkles are beautiful. They tell a story about the person. And what I love about it is that people walk in and I get them right as they are that day. The white backdrop takes away any other indication about setting, so it's just the person.

What are some of your favorite places to go in Chicago?
I like getting on a bus that I've never been on and then seeing where it goes, and get off at certain spots, take the camera along, and just shoot. A really cool place to take pictures is down on Kedzie and 31st street. It's a heavy industrial area, and there's a lot of abandoned factories. Also in the West Loop, like Fulton Market. I don't shoot people on the street without their permission, though. I think it's rude.

Would you consider yourself a professional photographer?
No. I don't know, I mean, I get paid for it, but does that make me a professional photographer?

What do you think makes for the best portrait?
People truly being themselves. I mean, I don't know you from Adam, but I get a sense about you, and if that's not present in the photograph, then I'll know.

Who are the toughest people to photograph?
The toughest people to shoot are the ones that have their own agenda. For example, a young girl came in the other day, about 20 years old, and she was trying to pose all "sexy." But it wasn't sexy, it was like a cheesy sexy. Sometimes it is difficult to stand right in front of a total stranger and pull them out to where they can be with me for a few minutes.

It's such an intimate interaction to have with somebody.
It is. I'm getting better about it, but I used to get uncomfortable having my photograph taken. Now, I'm not bothered by it so much. I don't take it seriously.

Want to have your picture taken (and perhaps tiled?). Marlow will be shooting at O'Hare throughout November. Check his calendar for dates and times.