A public sculpture of chairs on a lawn in Evanston. Photo: Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photographer Ron Wahome is putting faces to Evanston’s small-business scene. Working with the City of Evanston, he began lining up subjects in May 2015 for a series of portraits of local business founders, to be shown in a gallery and in public spaces around town.
Over the following months Wahome planned to photograph owners for the body of work. The pictures are part of the city’s public art initiative, which uses art both to promote Evanston as a place to live and to keep a conversation going about the issues residents care about most. The city counts one of the larger and more diverse arts communities in Illinois among its assets, and the project pairs that with the people who open and run businesses there.
Who qualified
The call for subjects set two conditions. A business had to be located in the City of Evanston, and it had to employ at least one full-time person besides its owner. Any industry was eligible. Interested owners were directed to an online form to submit their details.
Those limits make the series a portrait of established small employers rather than solo operations. A founder who has hired a first full-time employee has crossed a line that many new owners find hard to cross, which fits the project’s focus on the work of running a business. The city’s announcement noted that the job is daunting for anyone and especially for people starting out.
Two kinds of audience
The plan called for two ways of seeing the photographs. A gallery presentation would give the portraits a conventional exhibition setting. Displays in public spaces, as part of the public art initiative, would put them in front of people who never set foot in a gallery.
The city described the goal as moving and inspiring Evanston’s diverse community while showcasing the entrepreneurs themselves. Portraits of working owners, shown where neighbors can see them, also treat business as part of the civic story, alongside the sculpture and murals that more often make up a public art program.
Wahome’s approach, as the city described it, was to take what it called telling portraits rather than quick headshots, with each founder’s story central to the work. How many owners would be chosen was not stated in the announcement.
Source: City of Evanston announcement, May 2015.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
