Filter Photo at Night: Summer Edition

Filter Photo is pleased to present Filter Photo at Night: Summer Edition, a series of projections in downtown Chicago, featuring Ryan Bakerink, Samantha Friend Cabrera, Jonathan Michael Castillo, and Tanya Lunina. Projected in the windows of the former Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, this exhibition highlights four distinct projects that encompass a wide range of topics amplifying the voices of photographic artists working in Chicago.

On view August 1st – 7th: Tanya Lunina is a fine art photographer based in the Chicagoland area. Her current work, Rhythm Of The Lake, is a visual study of both the urban space of the city and its neighboring waterfront. Lake Michigan is only a few steps from Chicago's bustling downtown, yet somehow the city and its noise quickly fade. Lunina's images convey this peacefulness—even though persistent metal and concrete alterations may seem imbalanced with the vast views of water and sky. Nonetheless, Lunina excels in binding together simple forms, contributed by both man and nature. Before moving to the United States in 2006, she lived in Japan and Switzerland, places that both widened her skills and sharpened her artistic vision. In 2019, Lunina completed the Photo Program at the College of DuPage (Glen Ellyn, IL).

On view August 8th – 14th: Samantha Friend Cabrera is a photographer, writer, and performer in Chicago. Her series, titled Maiden Voyage, invites viewers aboard a quinceañera cruise, where dozens of young Latina women celebrate their 15th birthdays with hundreds of friends and relatives. The quinceañera tradition began in 1400s México as an Aztec rite of passage for females deemed ready for marriage. Quince dresses were once strictly white and modest, symbolizing purity and commitment to Catholic ideals. Over the centuries, quinces have dramatically transformed, and her images present perhaps the most unique, and arguably most American interpretation of the quinceañera. Cabrera is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts and the founder of Quinceañera Archives. Her work often involves intimate collaboration with communities and friends throughout the United States and México.

On view August 15th – 21st: Ryan Bakerink is a photographer living and working in Chicago. His most recent work, Chicago2020, began as a personal project of self-discovery, but ultimately emerged as a poignant and important time capsule of Chicago in the year 2020. During the global pandemic  he traveled to 77 Chicago neighborhoods to explore, learn, and document what he saw. During a time of limited options for social gathering, his photographs of the streets of Chicago were often devoid of people. As the fall of 2020 turned into winter, social and political turmoil presented him with the responsibility of documenting demonstrations and protest actions materializing in the very neighborhoods he had planned to photograph. Bakerink is originally from a rural community in southwest Iowa and moved to Chicago in 2000. He is interested in projects that explore social issues, counterculture lifestyles, the music industry, off-grid communities, travel and portraiture. 

On view August 22nd – 28th: Jonathan Michael Castillo is a photographer, visual artist and educator that makes work about groups of people, cultural behavior, and societal issues. His series, titled Immigrant Owned, explores the roots of immigrant business in Chicago, and the local and specific spaces that give character to our city's many culturally-diverse neighborhoods. The series takes the viewer to Chinatown, Little India, Pilsen, Little Village, Kimball, and Marshall Square. Castillo's portraits of people and places serve as a reminder that immigrants in Chicago contribute to our economy by creating jobs and paying taxes—while facing great risk and challenge. Simply stated: Immigrants are the embodiment of the American dream.

On View: August 1st – 28th, 2023

Location: 1 W Grand Ave, Chicago, IL

Produced for Filter Photo by David M. Wong and Jeff Phillips; Projection Design and Implementation by Jeff Phillips and Melissa Simms.