Taxi Cab Diaries Photos by William Purvis

Born in Charlottesville, VA, Purvis moved to Chicago in 1990 with the ambition of launching a music career. In 1992, he formed a blues/soul band called the Seventh Sons working in clubs such as the Checkboard Lounge and the Map Room. In order to finance his musical endeavors (and fill in time between gigs), Purvis took a job as a taxi driver. The job offered the opportunity to explore and observe various peoples, places and events. Purvis explains, "When something happened on the street and I would say to myself, 'I wish I had a camera. I said that so many times, I eventually convinced myself to buy one."

Purvis explains further in his artist's statement, "Since 2003, I have dedicated myself to capturing the vitality of Chicago's vanishing neighborhoods and communities. I began this mission as a taxi driver where each day offered an exciting element of surprise. I never knew where a passenger was going to take me, so I kept the camera at my side and waited for the perfect street scene to unfold (the bright evening sun shining its light on a neighborhood hotel, people in various poses standing at a bus stop, or the average pedestrian moving toward the unknown destination). The challenge for me was to recognize being in the right place, at the right time (sometimes the wrong time), and capture the moment. As time went on, I could see that the city was changing. Pieces of the city that I had taken for granted were slowing disappearing..."

Tip of the Week
William Purvis

Michael Weinstein

There is no more genial occupation for a street photographer who needs money than cab driving, which William Purvis discovered after he had taken up the job to allow him to survive as a blues musician. Shooting in black-and-white wherever his taxi takes him, Purvis does not document Chicago, but is drawn to peaceful, somber or morose scenes—depending on the viewer's sensibility—populated by isolated people who seem worn down—even in his study of a little girl skipping down the sidewalk as a woman stands against a utility poll up the street. Purvis' signature effect is achieved by his softly focused and deeply shadowed silver gelatin prints, and by shooting his subjects at a distance, depersonalizing them. Purvis's banner shot shows an old man straining with a bag of rock salt in the doorway of a grimy storefront on Armitage Avenue during one of our sweet home's familiar filthy-wet snow falls.

William Purvis, “Taxi Cab Diaries,” shows at Apollo Theater, 2540 North Lincoln, through September 14. (2008-09-02)