Maxwell Street,
Chicago
(1975 to 1984)
©Nathaniel Burkins 2000

Photograph of the author eating a polish, circa 1979; by now famous photographer, Anne Fishbein.
©Anne Fishbein 2000 all rights reserved.

 

COVER

List of Plates

Page 1

Introduction

This book project searching for a publisher, came about after I discovered that there were precious few good photographs of Chicago’s historic outdoor flea-market/bazaar, Maxwell Street, on the Internet. The Maxwell street market survived the Great Chicago fire, but could not survive decades of machinations by a greedy university and a shortsighted City with no respect for its own history. But this Web site is a tribute to the vendors of Maxwell street and the people who have enjoyed shopping and eating there; not an indictment of the philistines that engineered its eventual extinction.

My earliest memories of Maxwell Street are of wishing my family could afford the cost of a new pair of Converse All-Stars or “Stars” as we called them; at Kelly’s Sporting Goods down on Maxwell Street, just off of Halsted. My brother and I wore gym shoes from Sears that were made by the Converse company but looked different enough to embarrass us into pealing all mention of Sears off of our shoes. My fondest memories of Maxwell Street are of biting into a Polish Sausage sandwich piled high with grilled, vedalia onions and dripping with mustard from Deede’s (or the stand formerly known as Deede's); right on the Southeast corner of Maxwell Street and Halsted. I can still smell those grilled onions and see the steam rising from the grill in Chicago’s famous below zero weather. I spent quite a few Winter Sundays freezing my butt off taking these pictures with gloved, cold-numbed, hands. I was seldom very happy taking photographs in the Maxwell Street area. I found it difficult most of the time, to make pictures that couldn't have been taken by anybody who had happened to be there with a camera. Maxwell Street's picturesqueness lent itself more to documentary photography and I was interested in exploring my own way of seeing. But I loved being there and I loved taking pictures so I endeavored year after year to reconcile those two loves. If I had known that the Maxwell Street market was on it’s way to today’s extinction, I would have systematically photographed it inch by inch, I suppose. However; forced to go back and look through all of the work I did there, (from 1975 through 1984), I see that in some ways I have captured some of the spirit of Maxwell Street and the smell of grilled onions wafting through Chicago’s sub-zero air.

I dedicate this Web site to Maxwell Street area merchants, vendors (legal and illegal) and their customers, past and present.

Nathaniel Burkins, New York City - February 29, 2000