FEATURE STORY — November/December 2008

Photographic evidence

Scott Fortino Photo by Lloyd DeGrane

Chicago police officer Scott Fortino keeps his trigger finger on a camera

By Sara Langen

 

Photographer Scott Fortino, MFA ’01 does not like having his picture taken.

Like a sick doctor grudgingly enduring a physical exam, he stands uncomfortably before the camera lens as another photographer directs him to shift closer. It doesn’t take a specialist to see he’s suffering from an acute case of camera shyness.

As soon as the photo session ends, Fortino relaxes back into the thoughtful, good-humored guy he was a moment ago. It’s obvious that the Chicago Police Department patrolman is much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it.

Photography has been Fortino’s passion since his older brother, John, served as a soldier in Vietnam. “Instead of letters, [John] would send back packets of slides,” Fortino recalls. “It became sort of a high school ritual—I would come home, look for the slides, go downstairs, set up the projector and view his pictures. I would pour over them and try to absorb what was going on.”

As Fortino sat in his basement, listening to the Moody Blues and flipping through his brother’s slides, he started to notice how time and circumstance were changing the soldiers’ faces. He began to see the visual possibilities of photography.

Scott Fortino has captured haunting images of empty spaces, such as “Men’s Shower, Near North Career Metro High School” (bottom). This month, City Gallery (806 N. Mich­igan, Chicago) is exhibiting his collection “Elements: Earth, Sky and Water,” which includes “Montrose Winter” (top). Photos by Scott Fortino

When John returned home with his two 35mm cameras, he and Fortino came to an unspoken agreement. “He appropriated my war­drobe, and I began using one of his cameras,” Fortino laughs. He has been behind the camera ever since.

At first, balancing a 28-year career with the Chicago Police Department and a passion for photography was difficult for Fortino. But one day, while on the job in the 18th district, he discovered a way in which he could blend both worlds.

It was the end of the school year at Byrd Academy, and Fortino was patrolling the hallways and corridors for gang activity. As teachers stripped the walls and bulletin boards bare, Fortino saw something extraordinary in the blank rooms left behind: they took on new meaning. He began to record haunting images of these empty places.

Soon, Fortino began taking photographs of other spaces he encountered at work, such as holding cells and housing project interiors. “I would visit these places for one reason or another, [and gained] access because of the uniform,” he explains.

These images were collected for the book Institutional: Photographs of Jails, Schools and other Chicago Buildings (Center for American Places, 2005). Fortino’s photos have also been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and his work has been featured in collections at the Art Institute of Chicago. Commissioned pieces now hang in McCormick Place West and the Chicago Park Hyatt Hotel.

Looking back on the trade with his brother, Fortino is glad that John took his clothes. “I definitely got the better deal,” he says.