Marcus

He saw me speaking with another guy down the street and as I walked towards him, he called out “You gonna talk with me too?”  “Absolutely!”, I heartily replied & told him about $2 Portraits.  Marcus is a 51 year old south-side Chicagoan, now living on Lower Wacker Drive.  He hangs out daily on the corner of Michigan and Erie, and apparently is well known since while we were chatting, several folks passed by, said “Hi, Marcus” and slipped a couple dollars into his cup.  A unique thing about Marcus that he was proud of is that even though a south-sider, he’s been a Chicago Cubs fan all his life.  We then laughed about the Cubs/White Sox fan rivalries.  Marcus also volunteered his vaccination status & said the city came through last year and vaxxed all the homeless living on Lower Wacker and came back 3 weeks later with the second shot.

Marcus told me a little about his work history & family.  From 1989, he worked at Lake Shore Bank and the Walgreens, both on Michigan Avenue.  One from 9am - 5pm and the other from 5pm-11pm.  He stopped working about 10 years ago to care for his mother who passed away 3 years ago.  Marcus took it hard and has had a tough time adjusting.  He has siblings; “They all have their thing going on and I don’t want to place no burden on them;  I’ll do it on my own”.

We spoke for awhile about various topics.  Marcus is a surprisingly proud and optimistic guy, especially given his circumstances.  On a few occasions during our conversation, he pointed to the sky and declared, “I believe!”  I thanked Marcus for his time and he thanked me for stopping to talk.  I slipped some $$ into his cup and wished him luck.  Per his request, I’m going to print these photos and if I see him again next month, will hand them over.

Ricoh GRIIIx @ f5.6 1/250 40mm equiv ISO 640

"I Believe!"

Ricoh GRIIIx @ f5.6 1/250 40mm equiv ISO 800

All Photographed 1/18/22