‘It’s all about community’: the photographer who captures unseen Chicago
As part of a new exhibition, Carlos Javier Ortiz has brought his camera into Chicago neighborhoods that often get overlooked from the aftermath of a shooting to shopping for caskets
In the early 2000s, Chicago photographer Carlos Javier Ortiz had a dream of becoming a photojournalist. But after working at a local newspaper, he quickly learned that it just wasn’t for him.
“I worked at a newspaper because I wanted to cover my communities,” he said of his time in Camden, New Jersey, where he wanted to cover the day-to-day lives of the city’s Hispanic and black communities. “I was told I couldn’t do that.”