City streets are perhaps the most paradoxically anonymous and personal of all public spaces in the city: people blindly collide in their rush to reach their destinations, while the homeless look for humanity amid the thousands passing by. Gary Stochl captures this daily drama in On City Streets, a penetrating examination of the unpredictable people, places, and events that make up the streets of downtown Chicago. It is a stunning collection made even more so by the fact that this is the first work of Stochl's to be seen in his forty years as a photographer.

Until 2003, Stochl had never shown his photographs to anyone; his rich body of images remained completely unknown to the public. Self-taught and working in isolation, Stochl carefully studied the work of other renowned urban photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. Through his studies, he learned how to see his subjects, and he developed a visual language uniquely his own, unfettered by fashion or community. The results of his efforts are these powerful images that provide a starkly honest and penetrating glimpse into the lives of city dwellers and their internal struggle with the loneliness of contemporary urban life.

Like all great images, Stochl's photographs leave the viewer with an altered sense of the world. On City Streets offers, with unnerving directness and consistency, that rare artistic combination of visual sophistication and stunning emotional resonance. With this book, Stochl joins the ranks of Chicago's great photographers.

In the great tradition of photographers working in Chicago, Gary Stochl presents an intensely personal vision of everyday life on the streets of downtown Chicago since 1964. And, like all great art, Stochl�2s images leave the viewer with an altered sense of the world.

Yet, until 2003, Stochl never showed his photographs to anyone, and this significant body of work remained unknown to the public. Self-taught and working in isolation, without the usual support a photographer is afforded by being a part of a larger artistic community, Stochl studied carefully the work of other classic street photographers, in particular Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, and through them learned how to see. He also took to the streets, and his photographs reveal an amazingly frank perspective of people who seem to struggle with the difficulty and loneliness of contemporary urban life.

On City Streets offers, with unnerving directness and consistency, that rare artistic combination of visual sophistication and stunning emotional resonance. With this book, Stochl joins the ranks of Chicago�2s great photographers, and his photographic legacy beyond the city is sure to follow.

Gary Stochl resides in Stickney, Illinois, judy outside the city of Chicago. His photographs were first exhibited at a fall 2003 showing at Gallery Chicago, and he had a one-person exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center in early 2005. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the LaSalle Bank of Chicago, as well as several other private collections.

Introduction by Bob Thall The Plates List of Plates Acknowledgments About the Author and the Essayist