Capturing the Argyle Night Market

A new exhibition features Ronit Bezalel’s black-and-white portraits of the market’s visitors.

By JT NEWMAN

When photographer and documentary filmmaker Ronit Bezalel ( Voices of Cabrini , 70 Acres in Chicago ) first walked over to the Argyle Night Market last summer, camera in hand, she didn’t know what to expect. As a documentarian for more than two decades, her ability and confidence in approaching strangers and asking them to take their picture seemed easy. That it would lead to a photography show at Everybody’s Coffee in Uptown hadn’t even entered her mind. She just followed her instinct and used her camera and her keen eye to enter the narrative worlds of her subjects.

Show curator—and longtime friend of Bezalel—Riva Lehrer was taken with Bezalel’s ease with strangers. “I’ve been to public events and street fairs with Ronit, and I’ve always been impressed by her amazing freedom in going up to people,” Lehrer said.

Though Bezalel didn’t know why she felt drawn to documenting the market, she was struck by the beauty of the light and the market’s energy. “There were a few things that really impressed me about it. One was the atmosphere: the diversity and the celebratory spirit. I think it was because we were coming out of COVID, and there was a lot of joy there. And also the light. As a photographer, I saw that the light was just beautiful. It’s called ‘the magic hour’: the sun is very soft, just streaming down with artistry.”

So she started shooting. “I thought, ‘I want to take portraits of people.’ So everybody who’s in the photos I asked whether I could take the portrait, and overwhelmingly, whoever I asked said yes.”

Bezalel returned a number of times over six weeks in summer 2022. “I got to know people, because I went back every week. So this is Greg. He’s always there sitting and watching music. This is Pauline. She used to be a model.” She points out arresting blackand-white portraits, one after another.

Whittling down the nearly 1,000 photos was a challenge. But Lehrer, a seasoned curator, was up to the task. “I’ve been a curator on and o since the 80s. And I’m [also a] portraitist. So fi rst, you just spread out a bunch of photos, and you just react. And then once we started, we winnowed things down. Then it was about rhythm, and it was about not having the same compositional approach.”

Lehrer explained that it can cause viewers to numb out if the work is too similar. Other curatorial concerns included pacing and size. “Some of them are going to be larger than others. So it’s about having to continue to refresh [what the viewer is seeing]. I’m looking at internal rhythm. And have we got a sense of movement as we put [pieces] into proximity?” Viewers can find out as they check out the “Faces of Argyle,” a solo show of Bezalel’s stunning street portraits celebrating the Argyle Night Market’s vibrant community. v

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