1995 Chicago Heatwave

Chicago fell victim to a five-day heat wave in July 1995, which resulted in “over 600 excess deaths, 3300 excess emergency department visits and a substantial number of intensive care unit admissions for near-fatal heat stroke.” The event proved to be the second most deadly heat wave in United States history with heat indexes reaching a record high of 52 degrees Celsius. July 13 provided the highest temperature of the stretch, reaching 41 degrees Celsius. Rather than one specific reason the heat provided so many fatalities, but rather a combination of man-made environmental changes, ethnic changes and a few other aggravating factors. Between July 12 and July 17, heat-related deaths were so drastic there was no more room in the morgues. Left with few other options, corpses were kept in refrigerated trucks in parking lots. Ambulances were in short supply as emergency lines flooded with calls regarding heat-stroke. Additionally, the event had plenty of media coverage, with death tolls emblazoned on the television screens of Chicago’s viewers. Some argue the excess coverage caused the city’s residents to claim the event was a media fabrication in attempt to gain a larger audience. To this day, there are still those who remain skeptic regarding the disaster’s severity. However, the deaths were real and were exacerbated due to man’s interaction with the land.

The main source of the high death toll is derived from changes brought on by human settlement. The city environment which had developed resulted in an urban heat island. In the case of extreme warm temperatures, an urban heat island will likely prove deadly, as the blacktop used in a city’s excessive streets and the dark roofs of apartment buildings absorb heat and keep it there more so than typical throughout the night. In temperature studies of the event, researchers found nighttime heat in urban areas to be 2.6 degrees Celsius hotter than in rural areas. Typically, there is a .3 degree difference between urban and rural temperatures. This data shows the presence of the urban heat island in Chicago and how it worsened with the heat wave. Furthermore, dew point temperatures in the city were slightly higher at night than in daytime, as the ground absorbed and maintained high levels of heat. Due to the heat’s capture in the black surfaces, temperatures continued to rise. Not only were urban areas hot, but they built up heat. Additionally, the lakefront was significantly cooler than the more inland urban sprawl due to the lake’s breezes. Besides the issues arising from the urban heat island, the city also fell victim to a temperature inversion, which occurs when temperature rises with land height. During the disaster, the air became still and mostly devoid of wind, which left the resulting air to stagnate. Not only were warm air, humidity and pollution trapped within the urban heat island, but there was also no wind to carry it away. As a result, those without air conditioning essentially baked in their homes, with indoor temperatures averaging 32 degrees Celsius at night. In the case of the Chicago heat wave, the temperature inversion caused the effects of the urban heat island to be much worse than is typical.

Certain demographics featured higher death tolls as others as well in the disaster. While the elderly, who already had health issues, showed high mortality rates, particular races also suffered losses. In 1995, many of Chicago’s African-Americans were living in poverty so they stayed in public housing developments, such as Cabrini Green. The projects provided sub-standard housing and often had no air conditioning, which was a vital component to surviving the heat. Further worsening the situation were high levels of crime and gang activity in these areas. While opening a window may have assisted some in letting hot air move out of their homes, it could also attract a burglar or murderer. Rather than be victim to such an attack, everyone kept their windows shut and locked. Indeed, the areas with the highest death rates were between 94 and 99 percent African-American. As the CDC socially-examined the heat wave’s victims, they found higher vulnerability in those who “did not leave home daily, had a medical problem, were confined to bed, lived alone, or lacked air conditioning, access to transportation, and social contacts nearby.” In the case of those living in the Chicago slums, poverty left them with no air conditioning or transportation and the crime-rate left them scared of their neighbors. Interestingly, while many Hispanics also lived in poverty, their neighborhoods featured more social cohesion. Their neighbors were more likely to check up on each other during the heat wave, so social isolation was not so much of an issue. Still, many chose to overlook the surprising mortality statistics featured in the African-American community due to the “harvesting effect.” In the case of disasters such as this one, rather than the heat wave being the cause of death, it is often considered as a force which makes death more likely for those who are already ill. Thus the hot temperatures speed up the dying process rather than cause it completely. Researchers later decided there were 692 deaths in excess of those which would normally occur and only 26 percent could be attributed to the harvesting effect. Regardless, those living in the worst conditions were most likely to die due to heat-related illnesses in the disaster.

Still, there were further reasons for the event’s severity. The city of Chicago was not prepared to handle the disaster. City officials did not even claim the event as an emergency situation until the final day. While they did provide five cooling centers, the delay in declaring an emergency situation caused them to not be fully-utilized. Many died simply because hospitals were too packed to provide assistance and sufficient ambulances were lacking. While poverty-level was an important factor in maintaining electricity, many were without power regardless, as the city took on heat-related electrical outages.

A Comparison of Eadweard Muybridge and Scott Schumann

Thirty years after photography’s birth, motion was still an undeveloped area in the field. In Eadweard Muybridge’s 1869 picture, “A Study of Clouds,” four frames depicting movement are juxtaposed to display the sky in a black and white albumen print. The photograph appears to be a bridge between the camera’s use in the scientific and artistic realms. The picture is beautiful but also could be relevant in classification of clouds, thus serving a dual purpose.

Muybridge is possibly most well-known for his studies of motion using photography. In other pictures, he documents the movement of horses and hands, thus assisting the scientific community. These photographs have proved useful in settling debates, such as whether a horse lifts all its feet off the ground while it gallops. Another set of his pictures depict a cat being dropped upside-down and landing on its feet right side up, so scientists could study the motion. The set used for “A Study of Clouds” could easily serve a similar purpose. Previously, a scientist would have to draw out clouds to study them, which is likely to be fairly inaccurate. A photograph is much more precise than a drawing. Also, a photograph captures a moment in time. Previously moments were only captured in one’s memory, which is not as strong as a picture. Through the use of photography in science, the picture can be created and further examined at a later point in time, allowing scientists to be more accurate in this sense. Also, because a photograph can be taken quicker than a drawing can be created, Muybridge is able to take rapid shots, rather than having to spend minutes or hours sketching. In this manner, these photographs are especially relevant in classification.

While “A Study of Clouds” is in the same vain as his other photography, it also has features which give it artistic merit. The picture gives the effect of laying in a pile of grass and staring up at a cloudy sky. The black and white format and the haziness of the photograph cause the images to appear a bit dreamy. This relaxing effect is furthered by the imagery itself. In each of the four images one can see different shapes which can be interpreted to be different items, as is common practice in sky-gazing. In this manner, the photograph takes one back to the comfort of childhood, as sky-gazing is often done by children who have plenty of free-time, as opposed to adults who are bogged down by full-time jobs and families for which they must care. Adding to this effect is the final cloud of the lower right-hand side, which resembles a body of water. The “water” is also a calming throwback to youth, in that it reminds one of the womb. Thus, the picture overall has a very relaxing mood. In this manner, Muybridge creates photographic art which has a similar effect to the work of painter Mark Rothko, whose color-blocks are designed to give the viewer an emotion via their primitive nature. The effect of “A Study of Clouds” is similar to several of Rothko’s paintings which cause the viewer to feel calm. If Muybridge is able to use photography to the same effect as a painter, the argument that photography is an art-form is given further evidence. Clearly, this photograph can be viewed as art, even if its original purpose was for the science world.

Over 130 years after Muybridge’s image was created comes the work of Scott Schuman, an American fashion photographer who primarily does commercial work, but has also been featured in several Conde Nast publications. He is most well-known for his ongoing street photography project, which he maintains in the form of a blog located at thesartorialist.com. The photographs displayed on the site, which has also spun off into a book deal, feature mostly strangers he encounters along the streets of Europe and New York whom he finds to be visually-inspiring.

The subject of “Bill Cunningham, NYC” is, not surprisingly, Bill Cunningham. He is a fellow street fashion photographer, with a much more prolific career than Schuman’s as he has been working in the field much longer, primarily through his work with the New York Times. The photograph is dated September 10, 2008, which would place it in the middle of New York Fashion Week. In the image, the weather is clearly rainy and Cunningham is shown draped in a black garbage bag while attempting to photograph passer-bys. On his blog, Schuman simply states, “The man just goes and goes and goes.” One might guess that Cunningham is someone for whom Schuman has much respect.

A repeating subject of Schuman’s work is accidental fashion. Often, he finds the most well-assembled outfits on the homeless or elderly, who are not concerned about fashion in the slightest and probably could not name a single designer. The photograph of Cunningham is no exception to this theme. The wearing of the garbage bag does not appear “trashy” in the slightest. The manner in which he has it draped around his shoulders causes it to resemble some sort of patent leather or vinyl black poncho. The subject does not appear to be wearing a trash bag at first glance. Through this image, Schuman is showing how something practical and last-minute can actually look good.

This image is also a good representation of Schuman’s photography style on the whole. He literally tends to shoot color photographs on the street or sidewalk, typically in some sort of visually-appealing neighborhood. However, as far as subjects go, he shows no discrimination for age, sex or ethnicity. Schuman’s subjects only need be interesting in appearance. Typically, they are either stopped and asked to be photographed or just snapped on the go, as in this one. Also, his subjects always appear very crisp and in color, always shown from head to toe. One can easily pick apart the details of the person’s ensemble. Sometimes, in addition to showing the entire body, Schuman will accompany the image with a detail shot of something of particular interest. Meanwhile, the background is clearly visible but slightly out of focus. Schuman’s style of photography is easily recognized in comparison to other street fashion photographers due to its great clarity.

Many of the differences between Schuman and Muybridge’s work are glaringly obvious, given the passing of well over a hundred years between photographs. Schuman’s image is in color and taken with a digital camera. The picture is a portrait and he is able to focus in on his subject with great clarity. In some ways, what Schuman is doing seems childish. While he is not the first to pay homage to an idol, the image really appears to be more like a pin-up for the avid photographer’s equivalent of Teen Beat magazine. Meanwhile, Muybridge’s clouds are shown in a black and white albumen print. The closest one could classify the image as is probably nature photography. The picture lacks the clarity of Schuman’s as Muybridge did not have the same technology available to him. Also, rather than a single image, Muybridge has strung together four of them. In comparison to Schuman, his picture is more mature. The purpose of the photograph is not idolatry, but scientific. Muybridge is trying to use the fledgling art of photography to further the field of science, while Schuman is working towards entertaining an audience and himself. Also, while Schuman’s image is fairly straight-forward, Muybridge’s clouds are much more abstract.

However, the two photographs are not without similarities. Both are a form of documentation. Muybridge is documenting cloud formations to pass on to scientists and Schuman is documenting an encounter with his colleague to share with his audience. Both are debatable in their artistic merit. Schuman’s photograph is not necessarily appealing to the eye and does not contribute to his field of street fashion photography. While Muybridge’s images are visually-stimulating, he is unlikely to have created them towards that purpose. He explicitly states an intent to assist science through the new photographic technology which allows him to capture motion. Also, in their separate ways, the two images are examples of what these photographers normally create. Muybridge photograhed motion and, as per usual, these photographs show the motion of clouds. Meanwhile, Schuman does full length portraits of people who stand out to him on the streets and this image is no exception.

A Comparison of Richard Avedon and Nan Goldin

Richard Avedon was a Russian-Jewish photographer who worked primarily between 1946 and 2004, when he died of a cerebral haemorrhage in San Antonio, Texas. He began his career as the merchant marine in charge of taking the portraits for crewmen’s identification cards. He only kept the job for a few years before moving onto work as an advertising photographer at a department store. After a very short time, the artistic director of Harper’s Bazaar discovered him and by 1946 he was the magazine’s head photographer. Avedon was interested in fashion photography from a young age. Growing up, he read his parents’ subscriptions to Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar. He plastered his bedroom walls with his favorite photographs, particularly those of Hungarian photographer, Martin Munkacsi. However, attempts by Life Magazine to commission photojournalistic images from Avedon resulted in the photographer’s realization that he felt morally obligated not to take pictures of subjects without their knowledge or consent, as that type of photography demands. Furthermore, he did not want a magazine to muck up his pictures with some sort of layout which would take away from the mood he wished for his images to convey. The photographer continued to work in fashion photography throughout his life, receiving several retrospectives starting in 1962. Between 1980 and 1985, he began his famous series, “In the American West,” which documented the people who lived in the Texas countryside (Avedon 10-28).

The photographs Avedon did fall into two categories. Initially, his work captured the essence of city life and high society. His images typically either use New York or Paris as a background. “Homage to Munkacsi” shows a model holding a black umbrella and displaying a Pierre Cardin coat leaping off a Paris sidewalk while crossing the street. Also, Avedon primarily works with models or non-mainstream celebrities, such as Truman Capote, Dorian Leigh and Marian Anderson. His photograph, “Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent,” in which the title model is wrapped in a snake who is hissing into her ear, has become an iconic poster. Both New York City and high society come together in his group image, “Andy Warhol and Members of the Factory.” The image does not show the Factory itself, but rather, the people of the Factory interacting. The lack of backdrop suggests that the Factory is actually made such by the people who work there rather than the space itself. Forty years into his career, Avedon took a different approach to his photography through his series, “In the American West.” The series shows the people of rural Texas taken out of their natural habitat and depicted against a plain, white backdrop. Besides being visually-striking due to the black and white contrast of the photographs, many appear to have an intensity in the images which likely dissipates in their normal environments which lends to the idea that the camera deceives the eye.

Nan Goldin lived a very different life from Richard Avedon. Growing up in 1960s east coast suburbia, she used photography to display the dysfunction which was mostly kept hush at the time. When she was eleven, her teenage sister committed suicide. A week later, Goldin was seduced by an older man, who awakened her to the concept of sexuality, which became a theme throughout her life. The high school she attended used a new age form of education in which there were no classes, which only gave her more free time in which to explore sexuality. She began to photograph for her school when she turned eighteen as she became more social and began drinking more. The images she produced were a way for her to keep her memories as a sort of diary. After high school, Goldin left her home to live amongst friends, creating a new family among them which relied heavily on sexual bonds. Goldin continued her photography in fear that she might have her history as seen through her eyes in the event that one of these new “family members” ever left her in the manner which her sister did. In 1986, she published her book, “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency,” which displays a small portion of the photographs she kept (Goldin 6-9).

Goldin’s photographs tell a story involving themes of human interaction and American taboos. Typically her images are shown not singularly, but in correlating groups in order to give some sort of history. For example, “Susan in the Shower” is shown alongside “Kaethe in the Tub” and “Ryan in the Tub.” While Goldin is in many of the photographs, most of them show the people she surrounds herself with, which lends to the idea that a person is composed of their interactions with others. Even though the pictures are not of her, they still tell her life story, as she took them as she went about her daily life. Furthermore, a lot of her images are of two people rather than one, showing how humans in her life interact with each other. However, this interaction nearly always goes against the norm or displays that which American society attempts to hide. For example, Goldin seems to have no problem showing a group of men congregating in a bathroom while one urinates in her photograph, “Boys Pissing.” She shows child sexuality in the image, “Antonia,” which shows a young girl laying on her back in a dress with her legs spread. While this is a normal activity for a girl her age, it is not one which is openly discussed.

One obvious difference between the two photographers’ images is that Avedon almost always shoots in black and white while Goldin shoots in color. However, this says a lot about their opposing styles. Goldin is trying to capture a moment in her life with as much clarity as she can manage so she can hold onto a memory. Color helps facilitate the process of remembering. Meanwhile, Avedon’s photographs are more concerned with style than content. Although his images have clear themes, his real talent shows through his use of proportion, contrast and line. One of his most famous images, “Dovima with Elephants” utilizes the black and white palette. The whites and blacks of her dress appear crisper in the single palette. The elephants in the backdrop use their trunks to pose similarly to the model’s use of her arm, which creates a strong wavy line. While many of Avedon’s images appear to be improvisational, they are almost always posed, as he discovered his aversion to voyeuristic photography early in his career. Meanwhile, Goldin is very explicit in her desire to allow others to peer into her life through her photograph sets. She has no issue showing the intimate details of her life, such as her boyfriend’s post-intercourse cigarette.

In some manners, the two photographers find common ground. Both of them use photography for documentation and social commentary, but they do so in their own styles. Although he is not documenting his subjects in their typical environments, Avedon’s “In the American West” series does successfully depict the people of the Texas countryside. The use of a white background serves to make certain the viewer’s eye is focused on the subject, rather than the subject’s surroundings. However, one only sees part of the picture as they do not see any other details of the subject’s life. The series proves to be a sharp commentary on what is normal of Americans. The subjects are flawed and intense, rather than attractive and relaxed. Meanwhile, Goldin not only shows a lot of content in her photograph’s in relation to her subject, but she almost writes a biography for some of them by using pictures. One of her most famous sets involve Cookie, who many people feel they can relate to through Goldin’s sets of her. Also, her work provides commentary on a number of subjects, including sexuality, AIDS, human interactions, the nature of family, abuse and drug-use.

Works Cited

Avedon, Richard, Michael Juul. Holm, and Helle Crenzien. Richard Avedon Photographs, 1946-2004. Humlebæk, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2007. Print.

Goldin, Nan, Marvin Heiferman, Mark Holborn, and Suzanne Fletcher. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. New York, N.Y.: Aperture Foundation, 1986. Print.