Steven Szoradi: Water

Eloquent Vignettes of Chicago's Water Processing System

January 9 - March 31, 2003

Black and white photographs of Chicago's water processing systems will be shown at City Gallery in the Historic Water Tower, 806 N. Michigan Ave., January 9 – March 31. The 32 silver gelatin photographs are eloquent vignettes from within Chicago's water processing systems. Taking images of prosaic aspects of a mammoth and complex system whose fundamental operations are quite basic, Mr. Szoradi has transformed their mundane characteristics into elegant compositions. While water processing is at the heart of this material, water itself is virtually absent from the images in this exhibit.

Szoradi's photographs, all taken recently, exhibit a strong formal sensitivity. There are single images which blur references to pastoral landscape painting and the harsh realism of an industrial landscape. There are diptychs and triptychs which lift elegant bones of design out of heavy and sometimes confusing masses of machinery and bulky masonry. Mr. Szoradi develops and prints his own work.

Mr. Szoradi received his MFA in Photography from Columbia College, Chicago and his BA in Archtiecture and Photography from Bennington College. He has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Treffpunkt Rotebuhlplatz Cultural Center, Stuttgart, Germany; Dominican University, River Forest; the Chicago Cultural Center; and numerous other institutions.