Dave Jordano

I came across “Main Street, Ludlow, Illinois 2018” late one evening and found the quiet, peaceful ambiance of this small rural Midwestern town in direct contrast to the threat of whether or not it will survive another generation due to the depopulation of so many rural farming towns that are slowly fading away. Large corporate farming entities have reduced the existence of these small rural towns and their cultural identity is slowly disappearing from the landscape.

Dave Jordano completed a BFA in photography from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit in 1974. In 1977 he established a photography studio in Chicago, shooting major print campaigns for national advertising agencies. Jordano’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and galleries, including the Chicago Cultural Center (solo exhibition); Michael Mazzeo Gallery, New York; the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design; the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography; and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Canada.  In 2015 Jordano was awarded the $50,000 Canadian AIMIA AGO prize for photography.  Recent publications of Jordano’s work include Articles of Faith: African-American Community Churches of Chicago (2009), Detroit: Unbroken down (2015), and A Detroit Nocturne (2018). His work is held in several permanent collections, most notably the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.