Midway: Paul D’Amato

The Midway neighborhood of Chicago is one of the busiest places in city. Most of this activity is comprised of outsiders on the way to somewhere else. Cicero Avenue which bisects the area is a major shipping and transport route, semi-trucks and delivery vans abound. On the southern end exists a massive railroad yard and loading hub. And at the heart of it is Midway, one of few airports in the United States embedded within a residential zone of a city. With all that hustle and bustle in the center of it all, its actual residents appear secondary, more peripheral to what the place is known for.

Against a backdrop of bungalows, mid-century apartments, strip malls, fast food joints, motels, and light industry, the community represents just about every ethnic group in the city. In this working-class enclave Paul D’Amato has spent the last 10 years documenting the social fabric of this mixed culture.  “Midway is an area that is hard to define, and seemingly ignored, it’s residents between urban and suburban – between immigration and assimilation.” It is this “un-identity” that attracted D’Amato, photographing the people, the spots, the airport, trying to find what makes it work.  Difficult to typify, Midway doesn’t fall neatly into a category. The differences in the people that D’Amato’s pictures reveal is what make it unique – make it interesting, that make it alive.  And perhaps most poignantly, Midway is more diverse than most places in the city, a true celebration of folks, who are living in the in-between, making it work, and getting on just fine.

The collection of photographs by D’Amato on view at the gallery depict some of the lone, individual characters who animate the streets of Midway. The show is complimentary to, and in-tandem with a much larger exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center. We hope you can join us for an opening reception and celebration of Midway on Friday, September 20^th, from 5-8pm at the Stephen Daiter Gallery.