Steven E. Gross & Art In Motion
Click photo to enlarge
Click photo to enlarge
Artist
January 5, 2021
Steven E. Gross
Steven E. Gross is a documentary photographer and educator. He was born and raised in Oak Park Michigan, served in the United States Air Force and was stationed in Frankfort, Germany where he learned the language. He moved to Chicago to attend Columbia College to study photography and has never looked back.
Steven has greatly influenced the business of photography as a pioneer of photojournalistic black and white style wedding nuptials. He is also known for his candid editorial, commercial, event and portrait style. He established Steven E. Gross and Associates in 1982 and Real Life Weddings in 1995. He brings a distinct sense of composition and timing to all of his work.
Steve’s approach to photography has caught the eye of ABC Nightline, Good Morning America, Fox TV and PBS. His work has been featured in Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Magazine and numerous publications both nationally & abroad. His book projects include Zhou Brothers, In The Studio and Black and White, Defining Moments of Weddings and Marriage.
Steven photographs events with depth, compassion and an eye towards historical significance. His recent personal projects include photographing the world of transportation . . . anything from pedestrian, bicycling to trains. Steven is an natural with people and has the ability to capture subjects comfortably in their surroundings.
Portrait by Tia Mitchell
Steven E. Gross & Ravenswood Elementary School
Click photo to enlarge
Click photo to enlarge
I selected this family as they had two children in the CPS school system attending Ravenswood Elementary. By the time we started one child had switched schools and was now going to Catholic school which didn’t have remote learning. As I searched for more families to photograph for the project little response was forthcoming as this was near the beginning of the pandemic no one wanted to let a stranger inside their home. There was so little known about the virus and how contagious it really was.
I set out not knowing really what to expect. What I found was a child struggling with remote learning as well as a father who was struggling with his child and how he could keep him engaged in the learning process. I had little to compare too, as this has never happened in my lifetime and my children had already graduated high school and one of them was working remotely for college credit. There is a big difference between a college age learner and an elementary student.
From what I can access was that remote learning is not so easy and no doubt a lot of children lost quite a bit of time in their studies.
We all may be back in school now, many without masks as the people feel the virus is gone and they are done with the mitigation efforts, unfortunately the virus is not done with us. Only time will tell if there has been enough protection through vaccination and infection to keep us from going to remote learning again.
