Sometime in the early 1960’s a young man from St. Louis arrived in Chicago to attend The Art Institute. He accidentally discovered that the school would lend camera’s to students to take home with them. So he grabbed a 16mm movie camera and began filming the things he saw in his neighborhood. Fortunately, for us, being a poor college student, he lived in one of the rougher neighborhoods in Chicago and was able to document early ’60’s Chicago. He was always drawn to the weird, the unusual, and the very real.
Tom signing one of his most memorable photographs.
The film that Tom Palazzolo exposed during his time in Chicago became the first of a burgeoning national movement that came to be known as Underground Films. First shown at night in coffee house’s around the city Tom’s films began to be discussed in Chicago’s underground press and Tom’s fame spread from there.
Tom's image of the world famous “tattooed lady”, Jean Carroll.
In our community of Oak Park we are lucky to have many great artist’s and Tom Palazzolo and his photographer wife Marsha are among our greatest. We were very lucky recently to purchase some of Tom and Marsha’s photograph’s. Why not stop in and see the work of two remarkable Oak Park legends.
