Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 5-16

16 CHICAGO Like rediscovering an old photo album been boxed away for decades, browsing William nostalgia- drenched photographs at the Art Institute of Chicago reveals long-forgotten snapshots of backyards and hotel rooms and vacations past, minus that stale-attic smell. Organized by the Whitney Museum of American Artand Haus der Kunst, Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and is billed as a retrospective from 1961to 2008, smartly split here between the Modern Abbott Galleriesand the smaller Buckbaum Galleryacross the hall. The most memorable images date from the late and early the height of the Mis- obsession with the dye imbibi- tion(or dye transfer) process of photo making. think anything has the seductivity of the Eggleston is quoted here. To understand that seduction is to acknowledge the courtship between the photographer and the process one that, until Eggleston took a shine to it, was primarily used for print advertising and other lucrative work.

It was both expensive and labor-intensive: From a single image, three separate negativesare required (from red, green and blue filters) to make three respective gelatin matrices, capable of absorbing and releasing dyes of those primary colors. Lined up just so onto gelatin- coated paper, the matrices release the dyes yielding a full- color image. Imagine the possibilities of being able to manipulate those colors as individual layers before putting them to print, as opposed to putting your faith in a single sheet of light-sensitive paper washed in a bath of chemicals. Eggleston was hooked, and viewers are the beneficiaries. A stationary tricycle waits patiently on a suburban sidewalk, the rust on its handlebars so gritty in color, you can almost feel it against your palms.

Single blades of grass glow with late- afternoon sunlight next to a girl sprawled in a faded floral dress, her eyes shutting out the light. A woman with her face made up just so glowers from her perch on adirty curb, its tire-smudged yellow paint offsetting her cobalt-blue knit dress. These are the images captured by lens he has suggested, because in looking around for what to shoot, was more important or less A cluster of bowling trophies on a jukebox is treated in the same light as at Graceland. Despite weighty assignments, including one for Rolling Stonemagazine that sent the photographer to Jimmy hometown on the eve of his election, the resulting images are everyday Americana. The distinction? In the dye.

Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video: at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111S. Michigan 312-443-3600; artic.edu Through May 23 real at Museum of Contemporary Photography For those of us who hope to capitalize on the local housing current doldrums, shopping for a home is both exciting and heartbreaking. From all those foreclosures are reaped a bounty of affordable down payments and along with it, the bad karma of some- one shattered Great American Dream. That tension between the potential comfort of a new home and the emptiness of a house left abandoned is the focus of photographers Beate Geissler and Oliver aptly titled real exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Collaborating under the name Geissler Sannsince the mid-1990s, the wife-and-husband team relocated from Germanyto Chicagoin early 2008and began their house hunt.

As this literature tells us, the foreigners found themselves feeling even more displaced in their new city, traipsing through homes hastily left for collectors, unearthing eerie remnants of residences left for dead. Before long, they turned to their cameras for comfort. The 60color photographs selected for the exhibit are plucked from different homes but are arranged in a fashion that tricks the eye into thinking some of those dirty, paint-peeled walls were once shared with one another. While not sure I like the effect, it adds a layer to this collection that might otherwise look too stringent. The most arresting photos are those of rooms that offer more than a cursory glimpse into the past representational of a broader theme commonly explored by this pair of artists.

One pristine series of images, clearly taken from upper-market homes, are spotless save for footprints worn into dust on the hardwood floors. Another wood paneling is pristine save for a single K-Swisssticker in its center. The oddest, and weirdly saddest: a perfect-pink bedroom vacant save for a tidy, magazine- clipped wall shrine to Paris Hilton. Geissler Sann, real at Museum of Contemporary Photography, 600 S. Michigan 312-663-5554; mocp.org Through May 23.

ART REVIEW America: Dyed, heavenly By Lauren Viera TRIBUNE REPORTER Abandoned homes, left empty in the wake of housing market downturn, above, are the topic of real an arresting show at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. At the Art Institute of Chicago, William photography, left, revels in color. Product: CTBroadsheet PubDate: 05-14-2010 Zone: Edition: FRI Page: OTTADVP10-16 User: cci Time: Color:.