We Shall: Photographs by Paul D'Amato

Through emotionally charged portraits and richly layered interior views, Paul D'Amato's photographs made on Chicago's West Side provide a nuanced perspective on life in some of the most challenging and troubled neighborhoods in the U.S. Equally committed to his craft and to immersing himself in the community, D'Amato's collaborative approach to portraiture aspires to narrow the divide between his and his sitters' subjective experiences in order to create photographs that are at once genuine and aesthetically engaging. We Shall: Photographs by Paul D'Amato brings together ten years of work and offers insight into the making of the photographs. By pairing variants of a portrait from a single sitting, D'Amato seeks to complicate the images' meaning by defying the authority of a single photograph as a comprehensive statement. Neither feel-good narratives nor stories of despair, D'Amato's photographs convey the complexities of representation and the ambiguities of life in a socially and economically marginalized community. Published by the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago.Includes essays by Gregory J. Harris (Assistant Curator, DePaul Art Museum) and Pastor Cleophus J. Lee (Original Providence Baptist Church, Chicago).  Hardcover, 10 x 8 in., 102-pages, 47 plates, 3 gatefolds.We Shall: Photographs by Paul D'Amato has been funded by the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Read more