Portrait Of A Couple

A photograph of a man and woman wearing a black suit and a black nice dress. They are each wearing flowers on their clothes and the same style of flowers are in the background. The photo is in black and white except for the flowers which are pink. There is a grey border around the photograph. The text is white and the background is grey.

On the edge of the button there is a name that appears: Nemecek, and an address 1439 W. 18^th. Francis D. Nemecek, originally born in Bohemia but educated at St. Procopius School in Chicago, was not only an art photographer but was also an entrepreneur.  Although Nemecek worked throughout Chicago he mostly worked doing portraiture from his home base in Pilsen. Nemecek was active from 1903 to 1950 in photography. In 1903 Nemecek had a photography studio located at 602 west 18^th St. (Chicago Union Labor Directory and Business Guide, 1903, pg. 111). The studio that Nemecek worked and lived in, after the location at 602, was located at 1439 west 18^th in the Pilsen neighborhood. The second floor studio featured a skylight that was ideal for shooting portraits before the invention of flashbulbs.

Pero, P. N. (2011). Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.