Michael Weinstein

Power is the name of the game for black-and-white street photographers Jon Lowenstein and Carlos J. Ortiz, who continue and intensify the tradition of on-the-fly shooting—pioneered by Garry Winogrand—that reduces form to flux. Always dancing in the chains of form and coming close to breaking them, Ortiz offers a stunning image of a formation of birds transversing vibrant power lines intersected by a light pole and a latticed antenna surging up to the sky; the natural and industrial lines of force combine to produce a dynamic design that we will hope to see some day with our naked eyes. Lowenstein moves close to his subjects, eschewing clarity in favor of activity, as when he captures, from behind, a man bounding over rubble next to bashed buildings at a demolition site as he passes under the latticed arm of a giant derrick that cannot overwhelm his vital force.

John Lowenstein and Carlos J. Ortiz show at The Architrouve, 1433 West Chicago, (312)563-0977. Through August 31.

(2007-07-17)

Also by Michael Weinstein

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