Michael Weinstein

The twelve sensitive photographers in this straight black-and-white exhibit put their vision more in the service of gritty realism and sometimes mordant criticism than on the side of formal beauty or humanist sentimentality. The two stars of the show, Louvinia Malott and Kristi Sanford, offer stunning self-portraits that evoke strong yet finely nuanced feelings. Malott presents herself in a wide-brimmed hat that shades her eyes, accentuating the complex look of tentative power on her lips. Sanford's eye picks up on excessive emotions that disrupt our expectations of conventional expression. Her piercingly ironic self-portrait "Liberation" shows her naked as she sits cross-legged on the floor of a filthy basement, with bangs draping her intensely burning eyes, a remorselessly bitter frown on her lips and strips of American flags shackling her ankles and wrists.

"Within Sight" takes place at the Chicago Photography Center, 3301 North Lincoln, (312)549-1631, through October 3.

(2004-08-31)

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(2004-03-30)

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