Southside Pride

In the artist’s statement for his “Plymouth Avenue Project,” showing now at Homewood Studios, Bill Cottman describes the work on display as “Photographs filled with sustainable accumulations of economic and spiritual assets existing within the boundaries of my identity and my community. Intersections of faces and places, thriving outside the view of the IDS like [poet] Langston Hughes and [photographer] Roy Decarava did in ‘the Sweet Flypaper of Life’ in Harlem.”

Local artist Tweak mirrors Cottman’s objectives in another new photography project. He has documented the men staying at the St. Stephen’s homeless shelter; those pictures have become part of a calendar to support the shelter. Says Cathy Broeke, former director at St. Stephen’s, in her commentary: “The men that have stayed at St. Stephen’s since 1981 are brothers, fathers, sons, friends. They are workers, students, volunteers, artists. They are old and young, resilient and hurting, lonely and compassionate. They are funny, kind, desperate and scared. They are us.”

Part of the importance of these two projects is the impact of really seeing people who are usually made invisible, or who are typecast out of their individuality. Both might seem unlikely artists, at first: Cottman had a successful career as an engineer; Tweak did much of his work while he was himself homeless. Experiencing these pictures is a resolute way to face a daunting New Year (with war looming, unemployment up, budget-cuts threatened, relentless “terrorist” alerts). These two artists remind us of the human capacities to endure, create and love, even against the odds.

Bill Cottman is known more for his voice than his eye. He co-hosts the weekly program “Mostly Jazz” on KFAI (Saturdays 9 – 11 a.m., 90.3FM in Minneapolis; 106.7 FM in St. Paul). His 30-year “day-job” was as an engineer, yet he’s diligently studied and lovingly practiced photography since 1969. He describes the art form as “my autobiography, how I’ve discovered myself,” (as well the too-often unacknowledged legacy of other African-American photographers.) This gentle spirit of a man grounds his art in community as a teacher, mentor and volunteer with organizations from KFAI to Intermedia Arts. A Mcknight Fellowship supported this current project.

Looking at Cottman’s work, I made a fresh connection between photography and jazz. Both art forms demand the synthesis of seemingly diametrically opposed capacities: the discipline to acquire technique and skill, while also nurturing the spirit of spontaneity essential to the musician’s improvisation and the photographer’s ability to “catch” a visual moment. There’s terrific energy in Cottman’s work while also having a rock-solid essence.

In all of these pictures, vibrant daily life is set into an architectural composition, restoring appreciation of our urban environment. Cottman’s photographs attain a perfect balance between the structures we live in and intimate portraiture, whether in his own home or on the streets of North Minneapolis. People gathered at bus shelters, community meetings, walking dogs, doing errands reveal our Northside neighbors living like us—and unlike the handcuffed view usually propagated on local TV news. One series documents change in the neighborhood: the emergence of the Heritage Park development (replacing the demolished Holman low-income housing), bit by bit obscuring the IDS building in the skyline, a recurring iconic symbol. The exhibit grew out of Cottman’s work with the Northwest Area Foundation, taking a fresh approach to eliminating poverty on the Northside.

“(The aim) was discovering the economic and spiritual assets in the neighborhood and finding ways to enhance those,” said Cottman, at the KFAI production studio. “Also finding ways to remove obstacles that prevent people from becoming their whole selves.”

Cottman’s “Plymouth Avenue Project” is a moving testament to those assets. The show’s exhibition space, Homewood Studios, is further evidence of the possibilities budding on the avenue. Filled with studios for working artists and host to poetry readings, performances, community meetings, and quilters, this hub of creativity is the ideal location for Cottman’s work, which includes not only his glorious mastery of black and white photography, but also his explorations in color, video and audio recordings of Northside stories.

Tweak’s calendar of photographs of living homeless begins with a picture titled “2 days old”: a young woman, lying in a hospital bed, holding her baby. His portrait “My thinker” is of a black man, in a dim stairwell, intently reading. Another portrait features a dog arching out of a car-window (titled “dog found in dumpster as a puppy”) with a middle-aged woman sitting in the car. Presumably, she also slept there, a crime under Minneapolis city ordinance. The unnamed woman died last September. Another portrait “Jon Luna” portrays a man with a salt-and-pepper beard and a gentle half-smile. He reminds me of a lot of Vietnam veterans. Luna died last July. They were only two of the 86 people known to have died in 2002 while homeless in Minnesota.

Alive or dead, for most people, the homeless are invisible. Alternatively, they are treated with the contempt that Tweaks exposes in “How it feels to be homeless”: a pile of garbage discarded in a doorway, surrounded by snow. Desperate men wait for the overflow shelter to open, a dangling pay phone, a dark and empty street of parked cars in winter are stark realities. There are also glimpses of the camaraderie of people creating community out of bare survival, arms around each other’s shoulders, laughing. We are linked by the ordinary: a young black man washes his clothes at the shelter, getting ready for another workweek. Most homeless people are employed; they just can’t afford a place to live.

Tweak’s calendar represents traditional photojournalism taken to its egalitarian potential: the camera in the subject’s hands. His gritty artistry can stand side-by-side with established giants of the photographic world. Tweak is today’s urban Dorothea Lange, revealing homelessness in the wealthiest nation on Earth as eloquently as Lange documented the Great Depression.

Tweak’s calendar is $10, supports St. Stephen’s shelter and is available at May Day Books, North Country Co-op and other south Minneapolis locations. Longtime housing activist Margaret Hastings is organizing an over-night camp-out to challenge laws criminalizing the homeless and the refusal to build low-income housing. It begins at 3 p.m., Thu., Jan. 30, on the south lawn of Hennepin County Government Center. Afterwards, participants will go to the Minneapolis City Council meeting Jan. 31 at 9 a.m. at City Hall.

Bill Cottman’s “Plymouth Avenue Project” will be exhibited through Jan. 31 at Homewood Studios, 2400 Plymouth Ave. N., Minneapolis. Mon-Fri. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., weekends noon-5 p.m. 612-529-0423. An interview with Cottman airs Tue. Jan. 14 at 11 a.m. on KFAI.