Press Release:Patric McCoy’s Take My Picture opens August 10th
Coming off of his highly acclaimed exhibit at Wrightwood 659, Patric McCoy’s photos are returning to their lifelong home, Chicago’s South Side. During the 1980s Patric McCoy traveled from his home on Chicago’s South Side to his job at the Loop on his bike, traveling through Olmsted designed Jackson Park, along Lake Michigan, through public housing, always with his camera. From the lakefront to the loop, McCoy found no shortage of Black men who wanted their picture taken. Over a ten-year period, he shot thousands of images at his subjects’ request.
Patric McCoy: Take My Picture is a selection of black and white and color photographs from McCoy’s documentation of Black gay Chicago in the 1980s. MyCoy neither directed nor posed his subjects, so each had agency over how he is seen. The HIV/AIDS epidemic hit Black men especially hard. By the end of McCoy’s photography practice in 1990, many of McCoy’s subjects and friends would die.
“The Hyde Park Historical Society is proud to host a select number of photos from the exhibition, Patric McCoy: Take My Picture. The unique and powerful images captured by Patric McCoy throughout the 1980s reflect the many shared but oftentimes, marginalized histories that make Chicago. Hosting a select portion of the exhibition is very meaningful. The work is being presented in the community that helped define, nurture and challenge McCoy’s lifelong commitment to engage in the world intellectually and creatively,” said Hyde Park Historical Society President, Clinée Hedspeth.
Hyde Park Historical Society is located at 5529 S Lake Park Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
Opening reception is August 10, 2023 from 6:30pm to 8pm. Exhibition runs from August 10, 2023 - September 10, 2023.
Exhibit will be open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 12pm to 2pm.
Reach out to Clinée Hedspeth at info@hydeparkhistory.org
Hyde Park Historical Society
5529 S Lake Park Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
United States
